Woman with Scottish Dress 1916

Amedeo Modigliani painted 'Woman with Scottish Dress' with oils, using lots of warm browns and reds, and a touch of cool blue and green. He clearly understood painting as a process of building up layers. Look closely and you'll see how the texture is really important. The paint is fairly thin but applied in short strokes, creating a granular, almost furry surface. You can see this especially in the woman's face, where the tiny dots of color give her skin a soft, almost melancholic glow. Then there's her hands, roughly formed with simple strokes, a kind of contrast with the careful detailing in the face. This reminds me of Cezanne, particularly in the way he models the forms with color rather than line. Modigliani's conversation with the old masters, filtered through his own unique vision, feels immediate and unresolved, resisting any easy interpretation.