Portrait of Dr. Paul Alexandre

Born in Livorno, Italy, Modigliani went to Paris in January 1906 to execute paintings. In November of the following year, he was acquainted with a man who would be a model for this work—Dr. Paul Alexandre, physician and art lover. He was the first person who got interested in the work of Modigliani. Dr. Alexandre was a patron of Modigliani, encouraged this young painter, and continued to purchase his works until the doctor was forced to go to the First World War in 1914. The highly knowledgeable French art lover, Paul Alexandre, had close relationships with public institutions that had chances to introduce unknown artists to the general public, art dealers, and collectors, and supported Modigliani and his artistic activities in various aspects. In 1908, Modigliani began to frequently visit an artists’ colony founded by Dr. Alexandre and his brother Jean.
In 1909, Modigliani painted three portraits of the doctor, of which this one was exquisitely painted and attained the highest degree of perfection. Like The Riding Habit (Private collection, New York) painted in the same year, it is a three-quarter portrait in which the model posed with his left hand placed on his hip.
A series of the portraits of Dr. Alexandre, in a sense, evokes the tradition in Italian painting, dating back to the Renaissance, of “patrons having their portraits painted in return for their financial support.” Around the same time that he painted this work, Modigliani formed a friendship with the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, and for several years thereafter, he devoted himself to sculpture. It didn’t mean, however, that he gave up painting, and consequently led to the development of the so-called “Modigliani style” with its elongated and deformed figures from 1914 onward. This work is an exceptional painting in his early career that is imbued with the fresh sense of the young Modigliani.