Portrait of Anna Zborowska 1919

Amedeo Modigliani painted this portrait of Anna Zborowska probably sometime in the late teens using oils. I see a super-muted palette, like a faded photograph, all greys and browns and skin tones. You know, Modigliani’s really known for these elongated figures and faces. Look how he's handled the paint, it's thin, almost transparent in places. It's not about building up a thick surface, but about capturing a likeness, or rather, a feeling. Her eyes, just dark almond shapes, kind of haunting. They stare right through you, don't they? There's something very raw and vulnerable about this portrait. Modigliani seems like he was influenced by artists like Cezanne, and maybe even some of the early Cubists. But he took it somewhere totally his own. It feels like an ongoing conversation, this painting. Always evolving, never really finished. Just like art itself, right?