Lola de Valence by Modigliani in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2019

Lola de Valence,1915


Object Details

Artist: Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, Livorno 1884–1920 Paris)

Date: 1915

Medium: Oil on paper, mounted on wood

Dimensions: H. 20 1/2 × W. 13 1/4 in. (52.1 × 33.7 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), 1967

Accession Number: 67.187.84


Modigliani consistently integrated stylistic features of African art into his distinctive portraits. This work represents Lola de Valence, a famous dancer who had previously modeled for Edouard Manet. Recalling a type of mask made in the French Congo, the head’s elongated shape and abstracted facial features also appear in Modigliani’s limestone sculpture Woman’s Head (on view nearby). Although the artist had abandoned sculpture by 1914 to focus exclusively on painting, his African-inflected sculptural style remained a touchstone for his painted portraits until his death in 1920.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489642