Nude on a Divan
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 60.2 x 91.7 cm (23 11/16 x 36 1/8 in.) framed: 83.2 x 112.4 cm (32 3/4 x 44 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.77
Art Historical Context
Amedeo Modigliani’s *Nude on a Divan* (1918) captures the artist’s signature approach to the human figure during his most productive years in Paris. Painted in oil on canvas, the work exemplifies Modani’s modernist style, in which simplified forms and graceful contours convey both sensuality and quiet introspection. Created amid the final year of World War I, the painting reflects a moment when many European artists turned toward intimate, personal subjects as a counterpoint to the era’s turmoil. The composition’s reclining pose and domestic setting invite viewers to consider the timeless tra...
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...