Portrait of a Woman, 1917-18
Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920)

Born in a small Italian village, Amedeo Modigliani studied briefly in Florence and Venice before moving to Paris in 1906. His portraits chronicle the lives of the artists and poets he met there. The young woman in this painting has not been identified. Influenced by African masks, Modigliani rendered her features as large, flat planes and exaggerated the length of her neck and nose. Art historians have compared Modigliani’s graceful and delicate style with that of the Italian Renaissance painters Botticelli and Parmigianino.