Dr Paul Alexandre, Paris (acquired from the artist)
By descent from the above to the present owner

Venice, Palazzo Grassi; London, The Royal Academy of Arts (and travelling to Cologne, Madrid, New York, Florence, Montreal & Rouen), The Unknown Modigliani, Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre, 1993-96, no. 167, illustrated in the catalogue

Osvaldo Patani, Amedeo Modigliani, Catalogo Generale, Disegni 1906-1920 con i disegni provenienti dalla collezione Paul Alexandre (1906-1914), Milan, 1994, no. 890, illustrated p. 379

Executed on cream wove squared paper, not laid down. The sheet is a folio from a notebook, the vertical crease in the middle of the sheet corresponding to the fold in the book. The sheet has previously been folded horizontally. There are seven artist's pinholes along the upper edge and two along the lower edge. This work is in good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This drawing belonged to the French physician, Dr Paul Alexandre, who was Modigliani's patron, friend and greatest admirer.

Paul Alexandre had an undying admiration for the young Italian artist whom he met in Paris in the autumn of 1907. He encouraged and supported Modigliani throughout his early years in Paris and their friendship resulted in Alexandre accumulating an unparalleled collection of works from Modigliani's formative years in Paris. Alexandre kept a clinic at rue Pigalle in Montmartre and not far from there, at 7 rue du Delta, he hired a pavilion, due for demolition, for the use of a group of artists including Modigliani.

Alexandre himself noted: 'From the day of our first meeting I was struck by his remarkable artistic gifts, and I begged him not to destroy a single sketchbook or a single study. I put the meagre resources I could spare at his disposal, and I possess almost all his paintings and drawings fom this period... The preparatory sketches and finished drawings allow one to follow his development step by step, stroke by stroke, during those successive states (like the steps of an engraving) of the remarkably active mind of an artist searching for a style of his own which did, in fact, very soon emerge' (quoted in: The Unknown Modigliani, Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre (exhibition catalogue), 1993-96, p. 15).

The present is particularly rare for its inscriptions on the right side of the sheet, which demonstrate Modigliani's interest in the esoteric. For Noel Alexandre, this poem "offers proof of his personal commitment to the esoteric":

Just as the snake slithers out of its skin
So you will deliver yourself from sin
Equilibrium by means of opposite extremes
Man considered from three aspects
Aour!

"We know very little about the place the occult sciences held in Modigliani's life. Paul Alexandre, who was never interested in the esoteric, was nevertheless struck by these 'mystical correspondances' that his friend was searching for in alchemy, and he noted that Modigliani shared this taste with Max Jacob... these brief lines are particularly precious to us, even if, in the absebnce of any other documentation, we are unable to undestand their full meaning." (N. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, op. cit., pp.92-93).