Redheaded woman wearing a pendant 1918

Amedeo Modigliani made this painting of a redheaded woman with oil on canvas. It’s a classic Modigliani: the elongated neck, the almond-shaped eyes, the simplified forms. I wonder what it was like for him to paint her? Did she sit for him, or was it from memory, or maybe a bit of both? You can see his brushstrokes, especially in the background, light grey daubs swirling around her. The blue of her dress is so intense, it feels almost velvety. Look at the way he’s tilted her head, a slight angle that gives her this melancholic, dreamy air. There’s a vulnerability there, too. Modigliani was part of a whole community of artists in Paris, all riffing off each other. You can see echoes of Cézanne in his simplified forms, and maybe a touch of Gauguin in the flattened perspective. But he had his own thing. It makes you wonder, who was she? What was their relationship? What was she thinking? Maybe he was trying to capture something beyond just her likeness.