Amedeo ModiglianiItalian, 1884–1920Female Bust in Red
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Female Bust in Red” now? Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
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.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 61.36.22
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
In the life of Amedeo Modigliani
The whole lifeby 1914
Gives up sculpture for painting
By 1914 Modigliani abandons sculpting and focuses solely on painting, a move precipitated by the difficulty of acquiring sculptural materials once the war breaks out, and by his physical debilitation.
1914
Paul Guillaume replaces Paul Alexandre
Paul Alexandre, called up into the army, terminates his contract with the artist, and Modigliani’s new patron becomes the gallery owner and collector Paul Guillaume, who exhibits his work in his gallery.
June 1914
Beatrice Hastings
Modigliani meets the talented and eccentric Englishwoman Beatrice Hastings, a poet and columnist for The New Age, who becomes his companion, muse and favourite model: he devotes 14 portraits to her. The relationship lasts about two years.
1916
Léopold Zborowski, friend and dealer
Modigliani befriends the Polish poet and art dealer Léopold Zborowski and his wife Anna; in the artist’s final years Zborowski is his primary dealer and friend. He lends Modigliani his apartment, supplies models and painting materials, and pays him between fifteen and twenty francs a day.
spring 1917
Meets Jeanne Hébuterne
In the spring of 1917 the Ukrainian sculptor Chana Orloff introduces Modigliani to a 19-year-old art student, Jeanne Hébuterne, who has posed for Foujita. Her conservative, devoutly Catholic family renounces her for her liaison with a Jew, but she soon lives with Modigliani anyway and becomes a principal subject of his art.
3 December 1917
His first solo exhibition — and the police
An exhibition of Modigliani’s nudes opens at Berthe Weill’s gallery in Paris, his first solo show in the city. The gallery stands opposite a police station, and the officers, outraged by the nudes, force the show to close on its opening day.
