Flower Vendor 1919

Amedeo Modigliani painted this portrait of a flower vendor with oils on canvas. He was working in a time of great experimentation with the figure. I imagine him standing here in his studio in Paris, smelling of turpentine and cigarettes, trying to get a sense of who this flower vendor is. The vendor has a long neck, a Modigliani signature, and her hands are clasped, resting in her lap. Her eyes are blank, and she is wearing a black dress, which might have been a deliberate choice to make her stand out from the background's earth tones. I can see echoes of Cezanne in the way Modigliani is thinking about shapes and volumes to describe the figure in space. I wonder if Modigliani saw her as an emblem of beauty or as a subject to manipulate his own artistic style? Maybe both, as artists often work in this way. The flower vendor has become a permanent part of the ever-evolving story of painting.