Author
School of Paris
Reclining Nude
Modigliani's Reclining Nude — an elongated, warm-toned body filling the whole canvas: a sensuality that got the artist's only solo show shut by the police.
Its value lies in synthesis: Modigliani takes the classical Venus pose, simplifies it to a flowing line, and fills it with a direct, modern sensuality.
Highlights
Surprising facts & legends
Short but striking stories around the work — the things that make it come alive.
Interesting facts
The story around the work
Interesting facts & legends
- Police shut Modigliani's only lifetime solo show in 1917 over the nudes in the window.
- In 2015 one Reclining Nude sold for $170.4 million — one of the priciest canvases ever.
- He borrowed the elongated faces and blank eyes from African masks and sculpture.
- Modigliani lived only 35 years and died poor of tubercular meningitis.
- His partner Jeanne took her own life the day after his death — a tragedy now part of the legend.
Estimated value
What it is worth today
One of Modigliani's Reclining Nudes sold for $170.4 million in 2015 — one of the priciest canvases ever; it is in a private collection.
More details Open the extended reading, official sources, and visual context around the work
Historical context
Reclining Nude in its era
Modigliani painted a series of reclining nudes around 1917. The elongated forms, almond eyes and warm palette fuse the European nude, African sculpture and his own unmistakable style.
Path to recognition
How the work became widely known
At his only lifetime solo show in 1917 the police demanded the nudes be removed from the window as indecent. A century later a Reclining Nude sold for over $150 million.
Value
Why the work matters today
Its value lies in synthesis: Modigliani takes the classical Venus pose, simplifies it to a flowing line, and fills it with a direct, modern sensuality.
Connections and legacy
How to read the work more broadly
Modigliani died at 35 in poverty; today he is one of the world's most expensive artists, his elongated figures instantly recognisable and endlessly copied.
Official sources
Where to verify the institutional context
- Official institution page The Art Story
Visual context
Related images and nearby entry points
What to look at
Three entry points into the work
Even a very famous artwork opens more fully when the viewer knows where to look for tension, meaning, and compositional focus.
- Trace the single flowing contour of the body.
- Compare the pose with Titian's classical Venus.
- Note the almond eyes — the influence of African sculpture.
Continue the exhibition
A few more works nearby by era, energy, or visual logic
This makes it easier to move through art not as a list of names, but as a connected system of images, themes, and historical gestures.
