A double-sided drawing by Modigliani

The main significance of this drawing lies in its provenance: it bears, in the lower left corner, the stamp of Dr. Paul Alexandre (Lugt 4950), Modigliani’s first collector, patron, and friend. A physician with a passion for art, Paul Alexandre met the artist in the very early 20th century and purchased his works, assembling the largest collection of Modigliani’s early works ever brought together. His collection, carefully preserved by his family and long unpublished, was unveiled in 1993 by his son Noël Alexandre and partially sold at auction on that occasion. The sheets bearing his stamp are now among the most sought-after on the Modigliani market, as they guarantee both authenticity and a connection to the artist’s very earliest Parisian period.

Both sides bear witness to this pivotal moment, around 1909, when Modigliani turned toward sculpture. On the front, a standing female nude—with an oval, tilted face and hair pulled back—is sketched in mauve pencil in a single, continuous, enveloping line. On the reverse, a standing male figure seen from the front is reduced to a single, continuous graphite outline, his face rendered as a hieratic mask, with a nose extending from the eyebrows and hollowed-out almond-shaped eyes.

Modigliani’s Works on Paper

In their simplicity, these works reveal the artist’s signature style: elongated silhouettes, ovalized faces, and an economy of means pushed to its highest degree. Working in graphite, ink, or colored pencil, Modigliani left behind an abundant body of work featuring heads, nudes, and caryatids, which engage in a close dialogue with his paintings and sculptures. His line—enveloping and drawn in a single, unbroken stroke—reveals a perfect mastery of volume and gesture, informed by a gaze as attentive to Egyptian art and African masks as it is to Cycladic statues and Sienese Madonnas. Many of these drawings began as rough sketches, but they stand fully on their own and are just as integral to the overall structure of his body of work as his canvases. Their spontaneity offers a glimpse into the painter’s creative process, allowing us to trace, drawing after drawing, the nuances of his visual language.