Alfred (Poznanski) Savoir, Paris
Private Collection, New York (probably acquired in Paris in the 1950s or 1960s)
Herman C. Goldsmith, New York (on consignment from the above in 1986)
Perls Galleries, New York (acquired from the above)
Private Collection (acquired from the above and sold: Sotheby’s, London, June 30, 1987, lot 46)
Joseph Wolpe Gallery, Cape Town (acquired at the above sale)
The Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid and Lefevre), London (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above in 2000

This depiction of an unidentified woman dates from 1915, the year when Modigliani completed several portraits of members of the avant-garde.  The artist began to concentrate seriously on this genre at the beginning of 1914, after abandoning the stone carvings that had occupied him in previous years.  This shift of focus was encouraged by his dealer, Paul Guillaume, who believed that this would be a profitable move for the artist.  Sure enough, the portraits that he completed under Guillaume's advisement were very well received by the public, much to the delight of both the artist and his dealer.  "I'm doing new painting and selling it," Modigliani wrote in a letter to his mother that November.   "That's no small thing" (quoted in Marc Restellini, et al., Modigliani, The Melancholy Angel (exhibition catalogue), Musée Luxembourg, Paris, p. 419).

Among those who sat for Modigliani's portraits in 1915 were Paul Guillaume, Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Moise Kisling, Henri Laurens and the South African journalist, Beatrice Hastings.  Hastings had been the subject of many of the artist's compositions in 1914, when the two were romantically involved.  The couple's relationship soured by 1915, but Modigliani continued to feature Hastings in several of his paintings.  While the sitter for the present work has not been identified, she bears a strong resemblence to Hastings as depicted in Madame Pompadour, 1915 (see fig. 1).  Regardless of the figure's identity, though, the picture exhibits the earth-tone palette and the highly stylized, Cubist-inspired modelling that characterized Modigliani's portraits at 𓆏this point in his career (see figs. 2 and 3). 

The aesthetic influences of Modigliani's portraits from 1915-16 are ecclectic, and drew from a variety of cultural sources.  An Italian by birth, Modigliani revered the formal portraits of the Italian Renaissance and Mannerist painters, and his compositions incorporate much of the stylization favored by these great artists of the past.  The influence of the Parisian avant-garde also played an important role in shaping his aesthetic.  Living in Montparnasse exposed him to an assortment of creative figures, including the Cubist painters, Picasso and Léger, and the important writers and intellectuals of early 20th century Paris.  The combined impact of all of these influences was profound, and allowed Modigliani to create some of the most richly conceived portraits in the history of Modern art.  Kenneth Wayne has written the following about the vast pool of personal interests from which the artist formed his own unique style: "Of the many distinguied artists who worked in Montparnesse, Modigliani had perhaps the widest range of discernible sources:  Florentine and Venetian Renaissance painting, the nude tradition, portraiture, African art, Cambodian art, Egyptian art, Roman art, Greek art, medieval sculpture the sculpture of Michelangelo, direct carving, contemporary life, popular art/café culture, the kabala and Jewish Mysticism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, and fantasy art, not to mention French, German, Italian, British, and American literature.  These wide interests made him the ultimate Montparnassian sophisticate and quintessential figure of this extraordinary time and place" (Kenneth Wayne, Modigliani & The Artists of Montparnasse (exhibition catalogue), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Kimbell 🔯Art Museum, Fort Worth; Los Angeles County Museum of ꦏArt, 2002-03, p. 17).

This picture was formerly in the collection of Alfred Poznanski, the comic playwright who wrote under the pen name "Alfred Savoir".  Like Modigliani's dealer Zborowski, Savoir was a Polish emigré and settled in Paris shortly after the turn of the century.  He was the co-founder and editor of the periodical Marianne and was awarded the Legion of Honor befo𝔉re he died in 1934.  Many of Savoir's paintings were inherited by his son, Jean-Claude Savoir, who sold part of the family collection during the 1950s. 

Fig. 1, Amedeo Modigliani, Madame Pompadour, 1915, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, Winterbortham Collection
Fig. 2, Amedeo Modigliani, Tête de femme, 1915, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Emilio and Maria Jesi Donation
Fig. 3, Amedeo Modigliani, Tête de femme aux cheveux rouges, 1915, oil on canvas, Galleria 𓃲Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporaneꦡa, Turin