Additional Images

Provenance:

Saidenberg Gallery, New York sold as, “Portrait of a Young Girl” to
Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Dyde, Edmonton, Alberta in 1954; By descent to a Private Collection, Alberta

Literature:

Christian Parisot, Modigliani Catalogue Raisonné Dessins Aquarelles, Vol. 3 published, Roma: Editions Carte Segrete, 2006, with texts by Laure Modigliani-Nechtschein and Christian Parisot, no. 187/16, illustrated p.183.

Note:

This lot is accompanied by images captured by enhanced infra-red imaging revealing an erased sketch of a smaller figure in a similar pose beneath the present drawing. Modigliani often made several drawings of the same sitter in various poses. Faint alternative and erased lines are seen within the present design. Although hardly visible in normal light, the initial attempt is revealed quite well in enhanced infra-red imaging. Reproductions of this erased drawing and the changes in the placement of the sitter’s right hand captured by infra-red imaging accompany the lot.

The lot also includes by a copy of an indistinctly signed hand-written document, dated at Paris le 8/IX 1952, signed, M/Mrs. or H. Zborowski (?) certifying this drawing as a Modigliani.

Portrait de Femme has all the characteristic traits of the signature facial type that Modigliani developed after 1916: the elongated oval face, the graceful swan-like neck, the sensuous lips and the impenetrable almond-shaped eyes. Although the sitter for the present lot is not identified, the naturalistic frontal pose of the seated model with hands clasped in her lap framed by sketching lines in the background recalls Modigliani’s drawing of 1917, the similar size portrait, Femme au Chapeau (Ref. C. Parisot pgs.148-149) and Portrait de Jeune Fille sold at Sothbey’s, London, 2 July, 1970, lot 56. While, the small oval face, tilted to the left with her newly chic, bobbed hair style, recalls the woman depicted in Modigliani’s portrait of Madame Menier, in La Femme au Collier Vert, painted in 1918.

At first glance, Portrait de Femme, portrays a sophisticated calm. The sitter’s classical frontal pose and the curving lines of her collar creates a graceful movement which continues to curve through her arms coming to rest in the sitter’s clasped hands. Tension occurs when the eye moves upwards to the fanned vertical lines framing the sitter’s head and shoulders, the vertical hatching of the shading, enforcing movement in the composition.

Purchased by prominent Canadian lawyer and civil servant collector, Henry Alexander Dyde (1896-1976) and his wife from the Saidenberg Gallery in October of 1954 with only a deposit, the Modigliani was one of several important International works housed in their collection. The Saidenberg Gallery was a highly regarded gallery occupying a central position in New York cultural life for decades. In 1950, Daniel Saidenberg, a Canadian cellist and conductor, and his wife, Eleanore Block opened the gallery located in the Upper East side at 10 77th Street, New York. They began collecting modern paintings and sculpture in New York in 1943. By 1955, the gallery had risen to world prominence when the Saidenbergs were appointed Picasso’s primary representatives in America. Eleanore Saidenberg was the founding member of the Art Dealers Association of America. At her death in the summer of 1999, the estate collection included the most impressive works to come to market in recent years including a major work by Picasso and 45 other paintings and sculpture by artists such as Leger, Gris and Braque.

The undated, hand-written gallery receipt is testimony by its informality that a trusted relationship existed between the Dydes and the Saidenbergs. The Saidenberg Gallery was influential in introducing this important Canadian collector to Amedeo Modigliani, one of the great European modern masters of our time.