Nu couché
 | |
| Artist | Amedeo Modigliani |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 60 cm × 92 cm (24 in × 36 in) |
| Location | private collection |
Nu couché (also known in English as Red Nude[1] or Reclining Nude[2]) is a 1917 oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. It is one of his most widely reproduced and exhibited paintings.
2015 sale
The painting realized $170,405,000 at a Christie's New York sale on 9 November 2015, a record for a Modigliani painting and placing it high among the most expensive paintings ever sold.[3][4] The purchaser was the Chinese businessman Liu Yiqian.[5]
Painting
The painting is one of a famous series of nudes that Modigliani painted in 1917 under the patronage of his Polish dealer Léopold Zborowski. It is believed to have been included in Modigliani's first and only art show in 1917, at the Galerie Berthe Weill, which was shut down by the police.[6] Christie's lot notes for their November 2015 sale of the painting observed that this group of nudes by Modigliani served to reaffirm and reinvigorate the nude as a subject of modernist art.[3][7][8]
Commentary
- The Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones notes that Modigliani continues the tradition of Titian's Venus of Urbino. That tradition of glorifying the human body infuses the sexuality of Modigliani's nude, reinvented a decade before by the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Jones remarks that Modigliani was a religious artist and his religion was desire.[9]
Provenance
- Léopold Zborowski, Paris.
- Jonas Netter, Paris.
- Riccardo and Cesarina Gualino, Turin (acquired in Paris, 2 October 1928).
- Società Anonima Finanziaria, Zaccaria Pisa, Milan; collection sale, Galleria Pesaro, Milan, 5–8 February 1934, lot 185.
- Pietro Feroldi, Brescia (by 1935).
- Gianni Mattioli, Milan (acquired from the above, 1949)
- by descent to Laura Mattioli Rossi (1977)[6]
- Liu Yiqian, Shanghai, 2015 (sold at Christie's, New York, 9 November 2015 for $170,405,000).[3][2]
References
- ↑ "Sleeping Nude With Arms Open Red Nude". Modigliani Foundation. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- 1 2 Connor, Neil (November 10, 2015). "Meet the Chinese billionaire behind the record Amedeo Modigliani purchase". Telegraph. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
- 1 2 3 "Nu couché". Christie's.
- ↑ Robin Pogrebin and Scott Reyburn. "With $170.4 Million Sale at Auction, Modigliani Work Joins Rarefied Nine-Figure Club". New York Times.
- ↑ Qin, Amy. "Chinese Taxi Driver Turned Billionaire Bought Modigliani Painting". New York Times.
- 1 2 Kinsella, Eileen (November 9, 2015). "5 Fascinating Facts About the $170 Million Modigliani Nude at Christie's". Artnet. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
- ↑ "Modigliani masterpiece to lead November sales week in New York". Christie's.
- ↑ Zampetti, Chiara. "What Makes Modigliani's Nu Couché Worth $100 Million?". Artsy.
- ↑ Jones, Jonathan (10 November 2015). "Sex sells: why Modigliani's 98-year-old hymn to lust is worth $170m". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
External links
- Christie's video
- The creation of the modern Olympia — from Courbet to Freud Christie's article on the three nudes, by Courbet, Modigliani and Freud respectively, offered at its November 2015 sale.