The Black Dress 1918

Amedeo Modigliani painted "The Black Dress" at an unknown date using oil on canvas. Modigliani's use of color here is really interesting; it's like he's not just painting a dress, but evoking a mood. The black is so deep, but there’s also a lightness to it, a kind of transparency. The way he handles the paint is key. It is applied in thin layers, almost translucent in places, allowing the underpainting to peek through and create depth, in others more opaque and flat. Look at the mark-making around the collar. See how the brushstrokes seem to dance around the form, defining it, while at the same time, dissolving its edge? It’s this tension between definition and ambiguity that gives the painting its energy. In some ways, this work reminds me of Manet with its flattened perspective and emphasis on surface, a rejection of academic illusionism. Modigliani invites us to engage with painting as a process, not just a representation.