Les deux filles 1918

Modigliani painted these two girls with oil on canvas, sometime in the early 20th Century, and what strikes me is the emotional tone achieved through the use of quite muted colours. The girls’ faces are built from thin layers of ochre and pink, but they are outlined with dark marks. Look closely at the older girl’s hair, you can see how this linearity gives it definition. The girls don’t seem to have pupils; I suppose this is part of Modigliani’s project of finding the universal within the individual. The sketchy backdrop and the thin paint application create a sense of ambiguity. Nothing is fixed or certain. It makes me think about how we see children, who are themselves always changing and becoming. It reminds me of the work of Alice Neel, in the way that it balances observation and psychological insight. The work has a beauty, but also a kind of haunting fragility. The meaning of it remains delightfully unresolved.