Head of a Young Girl 1916

This is Modigliani’s ‘Head of a Young Girl’, date unknown, existing now in a private collection. That dark red ground is luscious, isn’t it? He's laid down very thin layers of paint, almost translucent, so it’s more like a stain than an opaque surface. I bet he worked and reworked it, wiping it back and starting again until he was happy. The girl’s face is so simple, like a mask or a cartoon. The eyes are almond-shaped and without pupils, which gives her a dreamy, melancholic look. I imagine Modigliani, with his bohemian lifestyle, trying to capture something essential about his subject, reducing her to these fundamental forms. What was she thinking about? The overall flatness of this portrait connects to other early twentieth century painters also influenced by Cubism, like Picasso and Braque, who were also searching for new ways of representing the human figure. It’s like they were all talking to each other, across time and space, about the possibilities of painting.