Three Unknown Modigliani Sketches Discovered Beneath Painting in Israeli Museum

Three previously unknown sketches by Amedeo Modigliani have been discovered beneath his 1908 painting "Nude with a Hat" at the Hecht Museum of the University of Haifa. Curators were using X-rays in preparation for a loan to the United States when they found the hidden figures. The painting, which already had a figure revealed on its reverse in 2010, now shows a total of five Modigliani figures. The newly discovered sketches include a man and a woman with a bun. The work will be exhibited at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia from October 16, 2022, to January 29, 2023, in the show "Modigliani Up Close." Museum art historian Inna Berkowits described the painting as "a sketchbook on canvas" reflecting Modigliani's "endless search for artistic expression" and confirmed the sketches' authenticity, calling it a "rather surprising discovery." The figures display an early, undeveloped style without the elongated necks and limbs of his later portraits, likely dating from shortly after Modigliani's arrival in Paris from Italy. This is not the first rediscovered drawing beneath a Modigliani canvas; in 2018, a portrait of writer and critic Beatrice Hastings was found under "Portrait of a Girl" (1917) at the Tate. The new sketches are likely due to Modigliani's efforts to save money on canvases early in his career, rather than any personal motive.