Alice

Alice is an oil-on-canvas painting measuring 78.5 × 39 cm, executed in 1918 by Amedeo Modigliani.

The work employs impasto handling: Modigliani built up pigment with the brush handle to accentuate relief, especially in the girl’s hair. The palette is restrained, shifting between blues and terracotta, and the composition’s vertical format emphasizes the subject’s elongated, cylindrical neck and egg-shaped head. Stylistically, the face is abstracted toward African mask forms, while the proportions reflect Modigliani’s interest in Mannerist elongation as seen in Parmigianino and in Botticelli’s Italian Renaissance works. The girl is seated, wearing a blue dress with a gold cross, and gazes directly at the viewer with large almond-shaped eyes framed by brown hair.

The painting Alice by Amedeo Modigliani was created circa 1918 as an oil on canvas measuring 78.5 × 39 cm.

The work passed through several owners before entering a public collection. It was held by Parisian modern art dealer Georges Chéron by May 1919, then by Danish architect Thorkild Henningsen, followed by painter Wilhelm Wils, and engineer, politician, and collector Johannes Rump. In 1928, Rump donated Alice to the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, where it remains in the museum’s collection.

The painting is held by the Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark) in Copenhagen, accessioned as part of the museum’s modern art holdings. It was donated to the museum in 1928 as part of a significant collection of modern art assembled by Johannes Rump.

The work’s exhibition history is not documented in the provided sources beyond its permanent location at the Statens Museum for Kunst.

Alice (c.1918) is a portrait painted by Amedeo Modigliani that entered the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen through a 1928 donation. The work depicts a young girl seated in a blue Sunday dress with a gold cross, her brown hair framing an African-mask‑like face and almond-shaped eyes that meet the viewer’s gaze. Modigliani’s characteristic elongation appears in the egg‑shaped head, cylindrical neck and vertical composition, echoing mannerist influences from Parmigianino and Botticelli. Scholars have linked the painting to Modigliani’s broader exploration of portraiture between 1915 and 1920 and to his engagement with Italian Renaissance ideals. The canvas measures 78.5 cm × 39 cm and was previously owned by collectors including Georges Chéron, Thorkild Henningsen, Wilhelm Wils, and Johannes Rump before its donation.