''The Boy'' is an

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artist

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...

created in 1919. It is currently part of the permanent collection at the

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It i ...

Description

The portrait is of an unknown male youth, sitting at a chair, his left elbow on a table, and his head resting on his palm. ''The Boy'' is a typical Modigliani portrait. The boy's face is elongated into an oval, his eyes are hollow and without pupils. He wears a blue shirt, that seems to blend him into the background. His cheeks are rosy and youthful, which contrasts with the hollow eyes. His face is mask-like and expressionless. The portrait is enlivened by the artist's brushstrokes, even in the limited color palette. Unlike most of Modigliani's subjects, this sitter cannot be identified.

Historical information

Modigliani was dying of

tubercular meningitis Tuberculous meningitis, also known as TB meningitis or tubercular meningitis, is a specific type of bacterial meningitis caused by the ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' infection of the meninges—the system of membranes which envelop the central nerv ...

by the time he painted this portrait. He was forced by his doctors to move to southern France from Paris, in hopes that it would improve his failing health. Along with this, Paris was becoming increasingly less safe as

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

heightened. While there, Modigliani shifted his focus to painting unnamed, young workers, like the one portrayed in ''The Boy''. Modigliani's portraits and sculptures reveal the influence of ancient Greek and African sculpture that started to hold more sway in the modern art world. Modigliani's work is easily recognized by his elegant, elongated figures.

Acquisition

The painting was purchased from the artist by

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, a Polish-born art dealer who represented Modigliani. By 1929, it was bought by Maurice J. Speiser, a

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-based attorney and patron of the arts, and was illustrated in a Modern Art catalog that same year. It was auctioned in New York in January 1944. It was likely purchased by

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from there. The painting was bought from him in 1946, with funds given by Mrs. Julian Bobbs, in memory of William Ray Adams.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boy, The Paintings in the Indianapolis Museum of Art category:Paintings of children Paintings by Amedeo Modigliani 1919 paintings