Liegender Akt

Sensuality, seduction, intimacy, vulnerability, trust, leisure...all these can be found again and again in Amedeo Modigliani's art. This is also the case in this nude depiction: the reclining woman has her arms folded behind her head and tilts her head to the right to look directly at us. The self-confident gaze is seductive and at the same time serene. The depiction of the woman, however, does not necessarily suggest an erotic invitation. We have before us not merely a naked woman, but the subtle image of a woman – as she understands herself, shows herself to the artist and as he captures her. Enclosed by thick black contours, her elongated body dominates the entire scene, the nude stretching from the upper left corner across the diagonal to the lower right edge of the picture. The painter has captured her appearance with hardly any chiaroscuro effects, so that her overdrawn hourglass figure appears almost abstract. The body becomes a geometricised form, hermetic and sculptural, as can be seen in the closed legs. Only the left nipple overcomes the strict contour and testifies to the vulnerability of the body. She trusts us. Source