Serving Woman (also known as La Fantesca) 1915

Modigliani painted this portrait, ‘Serving Woman’, with oil on canvas. The limited colour palette of blacks, whites, browns, and fleshy pinks creates a sense of melancholy, and this is reinforced by the servant's downcast eyes and tired pose. Looking at the paint itself, you can almost feel Modigliani’s hand as he swirled and smoothed the pigment across the canvas. The dark blacks of her jacket contrast with the white of her apron, highlighting the texture and thickness of the oil paint. A tiny detail, but I love how the brushstrokes around her hands seem to mimic the act of holding, as if the paint itself is cradling her. It’s these subtle touches that make the painting so intimate, so alive. Modigliani’s elongated faces remind me of El Greco, yet his work is utterly his own. There’s a delicate balance between representation and abstraction, where the real and the imagined blur.