Reclining Nude from the Back (Nu couché de dos)
1917
Oil on canvas
64.8 × 99.7 cm (25.5 × 39.3 in)
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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 21, South Wall
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG
This painting is part of a series of reclining nude figures that Modigliani began in 1917. Characterized by a frank, self-conscious sexuality, these paintings shocked contemporary audiences; police removed one from an exhibition in Paris for perceived impropriety. Also shocking was Modigliani's mixing together of several traditions across a single figure: while the masklike treatment of the face draws on the vocabularies of African sculpture, the languorous, sensual body recalls the nudes of European painters like Titian and Boucher.
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