Torso of a Nude Woman
ca. 1918
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
17 1/8 × 10 3/8 in. (43.5 × 26.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Modern and Contemporary Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Bella and Sol Fishko, 1982
Accession Number
1982.503
Tags
Art Historical Context
Amedeo Modigliani *Torso of a Nude Woman* (ca. 1918) captures the artist's signature fascination with the female form through a delicate graphite drawing on paper. Measuring 17 1/8 × 10 3/8 inches, this intimate study exemplifies Modigliani's modernist style characterized by elongated proportions and graceful curves that evoke both classical sculpture and sensual modernity. Working in Paris amid the Bohemian circles of Montparnasse, Modigliani numerous such preparatory sketches and standalone works during World War I, often exploring the nude as a symbol of timeless beauty and human vulnerabil...
About the Artist
Amedeo Modigliani · 1884–1920
Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor whose elegant, elongated figures and portraits rank among the most instantly recognizable images in modern art. Born in Livorno, Tuscany, to a Sephardic Jewish family, he studied at the academies of Florence and Venice before moving permanently to Paris in 1906, where he immersed himself in the bohemian artistic milieu of Montmartre...