The fantasy of discovering a long-lost artwork from a famous creative is one shared by countless collectors around the world. Of course, few get to experience that kind of rush in real-time. However, one lucky Venetian recently found themselves living that exact pinch-me-I’m-dreaming scenario when a cheap painting they had purchased in the 1970s was ruled to be a real Amedeo Modigliani portrait.
The painting in question, which is a study of the artist’s common-law wife Jeanne Hébuterne, was authenticated at the Court of Venice. This followed extensive analysis performed by several consulting experts, including Tierry Radelet, Art Diagnostics consultant to the Louvre, Paris, and Art Critic and Historian Saverio Simi de Burgis.
Painted on a small wooden board, the portrait has been identified as a preliminary study for an almost identical artwork currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. It is extraordinary to imagine that a painting now deemed so valuable could have been lost for so long, but many of Modigliani’s studies were either painted over, given away, or left behind by the artist as he moved from studio to studio, making this one a rare find indeed.
An inscription on the back of the portrait, dating the artwork to 1919, helped to provide a vital clue for its verification. Forensic handwriting analysis identified that Léopold Zborowski, an art dealer and close friend of the artist and his subject, had written on the back of the painting when he gave it as a gift to the Baron of Bolognano in 1920, not long after both Modigliani and Hébuterne had died. From that point onward, the portrait vanished, lost to time until its fateful purchase by the current owner.
Modigliani, a native Italian, and Zborowski, from Poland, were both important figures within the international and bohemian art scene that flourished in Paris during the early 20th century and drew renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso from Spain and Diego Rivera from Mexico. While some of the Ecolé de Paris crowd achieved fame and success in their lifetimes, Modigliani’s artistic genius was only recognized posthumously and is largely attributed to Zborowski, who went on to sell many of his works.
So intertwined were the artist and art dealer that Modigliani even set up a studio at Zborowski’s home, at 3 rue Joseph Bara, and continued to paint there during his final years. It was here that Zborowski commissioned many of the nudes for which Modigliani is best known such as Nu Couché, which sold for 170 million US dollars in 2015. Another artwork highlighting the importance of the pair’s collaboration is Modigliani’s portrait of Zborowski’s assistant and lover, Paulette Jourdain, which sold for 34 million US dollars in 2023.
The lives of Modigliani and his beautiful muse Hébuterne were both cut tragically short in 1920 when Modigliani died of tuberculosis, and Hébuterne, struck by grief, committed suicide. The couple’s legacy, however, lived on through their daughter Jeanne who became an art historian, documenting much of what is known about the time shared between her parents and Zborowski. These fascinating relationships provide vital context for the newly authenticated Modigliani portrait, which in turn allows us to peer back into one of the most romantic and inspiring episodes within modern art history.
