Nude with Hat

Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani painted this Nude with Hat around 1907, an oil on canvas measuring 80.6 x 50.1 cm. The work shows a nude female figure wearing only a hat, rendered with the elongated forms that would become Modigliani's signature. Her face shows the simplified, mask-like features he developed from studying African and Greek sculpture.

In 2020, X-ray analysis revealed three previously unknown sketches hidden beneath the painting. These incomplete works showed Modigliani's "never-ending search for artistic expression," using the canvas as a kind of sketchbook. The discovery confirmed the painting's authenticity while offering insight into his working process.

Modigliani (1884-1920) lived a short, troubled life in Paris, creating nudes that scandalized his contemporaries. He died poor at 35. A century later, his Reclining Nude sold for $170 million at auction. This earlier work hangs at the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa in Israel, a glimpse of the artist developing his distinctive approach to the female form.