Girl in a White Blouse c. 1915

This is Amedeo Modigliani’s painting, Girl in a White Blouse. Look at how Modigliani uses a restricted palette, allowing a cohesive exploration of form. The girl’s face, flushed with a warm, almost feverish red, immediately draws our attention. Her elongated neck and face are structured by subtle gradations of color, defying traditional notions of depth and volume. Modigliani deliberately flattens the pictorial space, rejecting Renaissance perspective. The almond-shaped eyes, devoid of pupils, contribute to the painting's enigmatic quality. The stark blue contrasts with the warm tones of the face, creating a compelling visual tension. The white blouse, rendered with gestural brushstrokes, provides a textural counterpoint to the smooth planes of the face. This play with surface texture invites us to consider how Modigliani destabilizes the conventional relationship between figure and ground. Notice how these formal qualities challenge fixed notions of representation, and engage in a discourse about perception and the construction of identity.