Léopold Zborowski 1911 - 1920

Amedeo Modigliani painted this portrait of Léopold Zborowski with oils, but when, exactly? Who knows? What strikes me is the sheer, delicious process of it all. The way Modigliani builds the form with these loose, gestural marks. It's all about feeling, not about perfectly capturing what's in front of him. Look at the surface – it's alive! The paint isn't trying to hide itself. It's right there, thick in places, almost like he was sculpting with it. The color palette is pretty muted, all browns and grays, but then you get these little pops, like the red book. It's like a little jolt, waking you up. That elongated neck, those almond eyes...it's so Modigliani! You can see a similar thing in his sculpture, these elongated forms. And it makes you think about the history of portraiture, from the Renaissance to now. What do we want from a portrait? Realism? Or something more, something that gets at the essence of a person? It's a question without a simple answer, and that's why it's so good.