Portrait of a Woman c. 1917 - 1919

Amedeo Modigliani painted this Portrait of a Woman with oil on canvas, but when? We do not know. It's all about how he's laying down the paint, the ochre and rosy hues. It feels like Modigliani is not trying to trick you into thinking this is 'real', he's showing you the way he SEES. I love the way the planes of the face are built up with thin washes, the paint almost transparent. Look closely at that long neck. See the way he's mixed yellows, pinks, and browns, letting them blend on the canvas? There's a real tenderness in that gesture, a love for the materiality of paint itself. Modigliani, like other artists such as Gustav Klimt, played with abstraction and figuration. Was he a visionary, or was he just playing around? Maybe it's both. It's a conversation that continues to this day.