Antonia c. 1915

Amedeo Modigliani made this portrait of Antonia with oil paint. The dominant colours here are earthy browns and blacks, with that striking pale mask of a face emerging from the darkness. Imagine Modigliani, brush in hand, circling Antonia, trying to capture her essence. I wonder what she was thinking as she sat for him. The paint is applied in these thin, washy layers, almost like watercolor, and that gives the painting a ghostly, ephemeral quality. Look at the way Modigliani renders her nose, just a few dark strokes defining its shape, it’s barely there! Yet it speaks volumes. He was part of a community of artists, each riffing on each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting could be. Artists are always in conversation across time, inspiring each other, you know, and that's what keeps art alive. There is no fixed meaning here. The painting becomes a space for all of us to think and feel, a conversation across time and space.