Woman with a Red Necklace 1918

Amedeo Modigliani painted this portrait of a woman with a red necklace in a private collection with oil on canvas. What strikes me first is how he gets the most from a limited palette. Modigliani’s colours are muted but purposeful. See the almost chalky skin tones against the blue of her dress? He's using thin layers of paint, almost translucent, so you can see how the colours shift underneath. There’s an area on her left sleeve where the blue just seems to dissolve into the background, a kind of painterly fade out. The red of the necklace and cuffs really pop, making you look again at the rest of the composition. Modigliani was good friends with Chaim Soutine, and you can see the influence in the use of colour and line. There's a similar sense of searching, of not quite resolving the form, which gives the painting its edgy, modern feel. He keeps it open.