Discover the painting that scandalised Paris in 1917
Amedeo Modigliani's (1884-1920) 'Female Nude' (around 1916)
Between 1916 and 1917, the avant-garde and controversial Modigliani painted several female nudes. Female Nude is one of Modigliani's most beautiful and seductive nudes, but this is far from what was thought of his work in early twentieth century Paris.
Female Nude (1916) by Amedeo ModiglianiThe Courtauld Institute of Art
Initially, the work appears to adopt the pose of a classical female nude, dreamy and serene in her pose.
The model is depicted gently reclining with gracefulness and tranquility, as if she is sleeping, a favourite theme at the Salon exhibitions.
Coming from Modigliani's love of non-Western art, features on the model are elongated and angular. This is very different from classical, Western sources.
The female's elongated head shows similarities to the Egyptian, African and Oceanic sculptures Modigliani had studied at Paris’s ethnographic museum of the Trocadéro.
This clash of cultures is part of what offended contemporary viewers in Paris.
The contours and modelling of the body are painted with simplified design, but elements such as the breasts and the pubic hair are much more detailed.
Modigliani abandoned the standards of nude in art by painting pubic hair, an absolute taboo in the academic painting of the period.
This directness of Modigliani's approach to the female nude is what caused police to close his 1917 exhibition at the Galerie Berthe Weill in Montmartre on the grounds of indecency.
Considered crude by contemporary Parisian standards of the early twentieth century, Modigliani used particularly rough brushstrokes and even abandoned his paintbrush at times.
Female Nude (1916) by Amedeo ModiglianiThe Courtauld Institute of Art
Modigliani's brushstrokes differ from the highly finished, smoothed surfaces found in most Salon nudes of the period.
He manipulated paint while it was still wet using the end of a brush, scratching the surface.
The background shows how Modigliani ploughed through the wet paint with a stiff brush.
By using paint to shed all conventions and rules of art producing a sexualised form of beauty that was raw and expressive, Modigliani's female nudes were greatly influential to later generations of the twentieth century and contemporary artists.
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Female Nude, Around 1916 , Oil paint on canvas . The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) © The Courtauld
