Female Bust in Red

In Paris, where he moved in 1906 from his native Italy, Amedeo Modigliani stood out from the ebullient avant-garde with his mysterious, long-necked portraits—paintings of arresting solemnity. From 1911 to 1913, he explored stone sculpture, creating a series of geometric heads inspired by African masks. Poor health forced him to abandon the labor of direct carving, but the feel and gesture of sculpting resurfaced in Female Bust in Red, along with memories of a much earlier art. Here the forms are condensed into solid blocks, and the vigorous brushstrokes seem to mimic the chisel’s blows. The head bows with silent elegance in a modern echo of Gothic Sienese paintings depicting the Virgin Mary.