Leo Martínez
Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani painted Nude in 1917, one of dozens of nudes he painted between 1916 and 1919. These nudes are considered some of the most important portraits of the 20th century. Another painting from the same year with a similar title is The Fireplace by Pierre Bonnard, which also features a nude female figure positioned in front of a fireplace.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Artist | Pierre Bonnard |
| Year | 1917 |
| Title | The Fireplace |
| Original Title | La Cheminee |
| Style | Intimism |
| Genre | Nude Painting (Nu) |
| Medium | Oil, Canvas |
| Location | Private Collection |
| Dimensions | 81 x 127 cm |
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What You'll Learn
Amedeo Modigliani's 'Nude' (1917)
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor known for his portraits and nudes. Modigliani's nudes, characterised by the elongation of faces, necks, and figures, were not well-received during his lifetime but later became sought-after. In 1916, Modigliani befriended the Polish poet and art dealer Léopold Zborowski, who became his primary art dealer and friend. Zborowski commissioned a series of nudes, lending Modigliani his apartment, models, and painting materials. These nudes, including the 1917 "Reclining Nude", were funded by Zborowski either for his own collection or with an eye to their "commercial potential".
"Reclining Nude" is an oil painting on canvas, depicting the model's stylised, outlined body from a close-up, overhead perspective. The model's body spans the entire canvas, with her hands and feet disappearing outside the frame. The painting's dark red background and the model's pale skin echo Italian Renaissance representations of Venus and other idealised female figures. However, Modigliani's work differs by presenting the nude without any mythological or allegorical context, instead highlighting the painting's eroticism.
"Reclining Nude" was included in Modigliani's first and only solo exhibition during his lifetime, held in Paris in 1917. The show was notorious for its sensational reception and issues of obscenity, with the gallery being shut down by the police on its opening day. Despite the controversy, the painting has since become one of Modigliani's most widely reproduced and exhibited works, with reproductions striving to be as true to the original as possible.
The painting was sold at Christie's in November 2015 for $170.4 million, setting a record for a Modigliani painting and placing it among the most expensive paintings ever sold. This sale reaffirmed the nude as a subject of modernist art, with art critic Jonathan Jones claiming that Modigliani continues the tradition of glorifying the human body, as seen in works like Titian's "Venus of Urbino".
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Pierre Bonnard's 'The Fireplace' (1917)
Pierre Bonnard's "La Cheminee" or "La Chimnea", also known as "The Fireplace", is a painting created in 1917. It is a striking example of the artist's post-impressionist style, with a distinct focus on light, colour, and atmosphere. The artwork measures 81 by 127 centimetres and is crafted with oil on canvas. It is currently part of a private collection.
The painting depicts a nude female figure positioned in front of an intricately detailed fireplace, with a vibrant colour palette that captures the warmth and luminosity of the fire. The fireplace is the focal point of the scene, emitting a cosy light that contrasts with the blue and green tones of the surrounding environment. The composition is characterised by its asymmetry, with objects and elements arranged spontaneously, adding a sense of realism and naturalness.
The furniture and carpet in the foreground provide depth and closeness, while each object communicates an intimacy that invites the viewer to observe a fleeting moment of domestic life. Bonnard often represented his wife, Marthe, in his works, but in this painting, the absence of a human figure reinforces the notion of a personal and private space. The empty setting suggests a tacit presence and an echo of the lives that could inhabit this intimate setting.
The juxtaposition of elements within the composition, such as vases and adornments on the mantel, contribute to the overall depth and richness of the scene. Bonnard's careful brushwork and layered textures accentuate the tranquil and introspective mood of the artwork. "The Fireplace" is a powerful reminder of the beauty that can be found in everyday life, solidifying Bonnard's influence on subsequent generations of artists and his legacy in the context of twentieth-century art.
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Modigliani's solo exhibition in 1917
Amedeo Modigliani, an Italian painter and sculptor, held his first and only solo exhibition at the Berthe Weill Gallery in Paris towards the end of 1917. The exhibition showcased dozens of nude portraits, including the famous "Nude" painting, created in the same year. Modigliani's nudes provoked a scandal, leading to the exhibition's closure by the Parisian police just hours after its opening.
Modigliani's "Nude" paintings are considered among the most important portraits of the 20th century. The artist drew influences from primitive art, evident in his treatment of elongated, mask-like faces. He briefly studied art at the Scuola Libera di Nudo in Florence and the Instituto per le Belle Arti in Venice. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he was exposed to the works of Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who became significant influences on his style.
The 1917 exhibition marked a pivotal moment in Modigliani's artistic journey, solidifying his place as a master of nude portraits and a significant artist of his time. While the exhibition's closure by the police may have been a setback, it also attracted attention and intrigue, further emphasising the impact and importance of Modigliani's work during that period.
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Modigliani's models and influences
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani, born in Livorno, Italy, was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterised by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and figures.
Modigliani's models could be anyone—from fellow artists and patrons to anonymous models. His subjects included the kitchen maid at the local bistro, the concierge's daughter, and the servant of his art dealer. Modigliani's first love, Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, and his last love, Jeanne Hébuterne, an art student at the Académie Colarossi, were also his models. Jeanne Hébuterne, with her red hair, became Modigliani's most frequent model, painted more than 25 times.
Modigliani's work was influenced by a variety of sources, including primitive art, ancient Egyptian art, African art, and Southeast Asian art. He was also influenced by the work of Constantin Brancusi, whom he met in 1909, and whose sculptures inspired the abstracted and linear vocabulary of his paintings. Modigliani's early work was influenced by Parisian artists such as Giovanni Boldini and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whom he discovered after moving to Paris in 1906. He also admired the work of Domenico Morelli, a painter of dramatic religious and literary scenes. Modigliani's work further shows the influence of Post-Impressionists, with his "Head of a Woman Wearing a Hat" (1907) exhibiting the influence of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the tilt of the woman's shoulders and her expressive face. Around 1907, he also became fascinated with the work of Paul Cézanne.
Modigliani's work was also influenced by literature. The poetry of Lautréamont, characterised by the juxtaposition of fantastical elements and sadistic imagery, was influential to him. During his "sabbatical" in Capri in 1901, Modigliani was influenced by the thinking of Nietzsche, as indicated in letters he wrote to his friend Oscar Ghiglia.
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Bonnard's Intimism movement
Pierre Bonnard was a prominent French painter and, along with Édouard Vuillard, a founder of the artistic movement known as Les Nabis. This loose collective of artists, active from around 1889 to 1900, had no unifying aesthetic goal but shared an interest in bright colours and bold, semi-abstract shapes.
Bonnard and Vuillard's particular style within this movement was known as 'Intimism'. This artistic style focused on the everyday and the mundane, depicting banal yet personal domestic scenes, particularly interiors. The artists drew inspiration from their own intimate lives, often portraying family members. For example, Bonnard's wife, Marthe, who took long baths to alleviate chronic pain, was the subject of several of his paintings, including 'The Bath' (1925). In these works, Marthe becomes "lavender-streaked, washed blue like French skies, and somehow disembodied, familiar yet strange, wallowing and flat like a fish".
Intimists sought to convey the warmth, comfort, and quiet isolation of interior scenes. To achieve this, Bonnard and Vuillard employed the Impressionist broken-colour technique to capture the light and atmosphere of a fleeting moment. However, unlike the Impressionists, they derived their colours from an emotional interpretation of the world rather than precise observation, exaggerating and distorting natural colours to express mood. Both artists displayed a strong decorative sense in the arrangement of dense areas of colour.
The appeal of Intimism lies in its ability to make audiences reconsider the beauty of household objects and unthinking rituals. The trappings of a middle-class French lifestyle depicted in these paintings are close enough in time and sensibility to a modern aesthetic that viewers can relate them to their own lives.
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