Amedeo ModiglianiItalian, 1884–1920Nude on a Blue Cushion
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Nude on a Blue Cushion” now? National Gallery of Art, Gallery 103A · East Building, Ground Level, Washington, D.C. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.
Closed· opens tomorrow at 10:00 AM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Nude on a Blue Cushion is an oil painting by Amedeo Modigliani, completed in 1917. It is currently on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The painting depicts a nude woman relaxing on her side on a blue cushion. It is one of a series of nudes he painted from 1916–1919 commissioned by art dealer Leopold Zborowski. When the collection was displayed in Paris, the police reportedly shut it down on its opening day for its obscenity.
Details
- Accession number
- 1963.10.46
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- National Gallery of Art
- Image: National Gallery of Art — Museum open access
In the life of Amedeo Modigliani
The whole life1916
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.
1918
Flight to the south: Cagnes-sur-Mer and Nice
Fearing a German invasion, Modigliani leaves Paris with Jeanne Hébuterne, the Zborowskis and Chaïm Soutine for the south of France, first to Cagnes-sur-Mer and then to Nice. He returns to portraiture and sends the finished canvases to Paris for sale.
1918–1919
Nice: selling for pennies, yet painting his best-known works
On a trip to Nice conceived and organised by Zborowski, Modigliani, Foujita and other artists try to sell their works to rich tourists; Modigliani manages to sell a few pictures, but only for a few francs each. Even so, he produces during this time most of the paintings that later become his most popular and valued works.
1919
Engagement to Jeanne: the wedding that never happened
When Jeanne becomes pregnant again, Modigliani gets engaged to her, but her parents oppose the marriage, above all because of his reputation as an alcoholic and drug user. The wedding plans are shattered when Modigliani discovers he has a severe form of tuberculosis, but he officially recognises Jeanne’s daughter as his own child.
