Portrait of Adolphe Basler

ca. 1916

The painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani was among the group of international avant-garde artists living and working in Paris in the early years of the twentieth century, first in Montmartre and later in Montparnasse. When he was short of funds, which was often, he drew and sold sketches of friends, as well as strangers he saw in the cafés he frequented. As recounted by the critic and art dealer Adolphe Basler, the sitter for this animated portrait, “Just about every Montparnassian had his portrait drawn or painted by Modigliani.” The artist articulated Basler’s features with frenzied, curling scribbles that merge seamlessly with the words and letters scrawled at the bottom of the page.