Modigliani's scandalous nude with necklace goes up for auction at Sotheby's

After announcing the arrival on the market of a selection of works from the legendary Lewis Collection, Sotheby’s unveiled the full catalog of the sale, revealing the full scope of one of the most important collecting transactions in recent years. The collection includes masterpieces signed by some of the absolute protagonists of modern and contemporary art, including Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Gustave Caillebotte, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Chaïm Soutine. Leading the sale, however, will be a work destined to attract the attention of the international market: Nu assis au collier by Amedeo Modigliani (Livorno, 1884 - Paris, 1920), a 1917-1918 painting estimated at more than 45 million pounds (52 million euros) and considered one of the artist’s most important works ever to appear on the market.

The painting belongs to the famous series of nudes that caused such a scandal at the time that the police intervened. The work was created in the same year as the first and only solo exhibition held during Modigliani’s lifetime at Berthe Weill’s gallery on rue Taitbout in Paris. The exhibition, which has now become part of the legend of art history, was closed by the authorities as early as the day of its opening because of the protests aroused by the nudes displayed in the window. Those canvases, considered scandalous and provocative by Parisian society of the time, are now recognized as some of the absolute pinnacles of twentieth-century painting.

The importance of that cycle of works is also confirmed by the results obtained on the market. In fact, Modigliani’s two absolute auction records belong to paintings from the same series, both titled Nu couché. The works were sold in 2015 and 2018 in New York for $170.4 million and $157.2 million, respectively, making Modigliani one of the very few artists in history to have twice surpassed the $100 million mark at auction. With the upcoming sale, Sotheby’s emphasizes how the center of gravity of the market for such an important work ideally shifts from New York to London. Indeed, Nu assis au collier represents not only one of the most valuable works ever offered in the British capital, but also the Modigliani painting with the highest estimate ever presented on the European market. The work had last appeared at auction in 1995 and had not been exhibited in Europe since 1938. Its return is therefore an exceptional event for the international market and for scholars of the artist.

Historically and artistically, the painting fits into the long tradition of the Western nude, ideally dialoguing with some of the most celebrated precedents in art history, from Titian’s Venus of Urbino to Édouard Manet’sOlympia. Through this series of works, Modigliani consciously placed himself within that tradition, reinterpreting it for 20th-century audiences.

In 1917, dealer and friend Leopold Zborowski offered the artist a deal that would prove decisive. In exchange for a daily fee of fifteen francs, Modigliani would produce a series of nudes destined to go down in art history. The models would receive five francs for posing in an apartment located above Zborowski’s own, at 3 rue Joseph Bara, between Montparnasse Cemetery and the Jardin du Luxembourg. It was in that context that some of the artist’s most famous paintings were born, including Nu assis au collier itself. Just as Manet had scandalized the public of the previous generation with his Olympia, Modigliani proposed a radically new vision of the nude that was destined to profoundly influence twentieth-century art.

If Manet’s figure confronted the viewer directly, the protagonist of Nu assis au collier seems instead to turn her gaze toward an inner dimension. The pose consciously recalls the tradition of the demure Venus of classical antiquity, while the coral necklace that gives the work its title recalls the ornaments found in the Italian Renaissance portraits so admired by the artist. The result is an original synthesis of historical memory and modernity. Indeed, Modigliani blends influences from Italian Renaissance and Mannerist painting, African sculptures, and the formal research of Cubism, recognizable in the earthy-toned palette and the geometric construction of forms.

The female figure appears both classical and deeply contemporary. The elongated body, tilted head, and averted gaze create an intense and silent presence. A seemingly simple gesture contributes to the expressive force of the image: one hand grazes the necklace while the other rests between her legs in a position that appears both protective and provocative. The nudity of the woman is not mediated by mythological or allegorical references but is presented with naturalness, autonomy and awareness.

The innovative force of these works contributed decisively to the construction of the so-called “Modigliani myth.” Indeed, the tragic biographical story of the artist, who died in 1920 at the age of only 35 from tubercular meningitis and was followed the next day by the death of his partner Jeanne Hébuterne, pregnant with their second child, was intertwined with the legend of the censored works and the growing international fame of his paintings.

The scandalized reaction that greeted his nudes at the time they were made is now interpreted by art historians as demonstrating the central role these works played in establishing Modigliani as one of the most original and influential voices in 20th-century art.

The importance of Nu assis au collier is also confirmed by its presence in the temporary exhibitions of some of the world’s leading cultural institutions. Over the years the painting has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as in other major international exhibitions dedicated to the artist.

Emphasizing the exceptional value of Nu assis au collier was Thomas Boyd-Bowman, head of Evening Sales of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s London: Nu assis au collier, he says, “is a milestone in Modigliani’s celebrated series of nudes, distinguished by restraint, psychological depth and - frankly - boldness. However reserved it may appear on the surface, this ’modern Olympia’ had the power to subvert tradition, causing a stir. Its appearance on the market this June will no doubt be equally sensational.”

Modigliani's scandalous nude with necklace goes up for auction at Sotheby's

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