Nu Couché (sur le côté gauche)

Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani painted this Nu Couché (sur le côté gauche) in 1917, the largest canvas of his entire career. Measuring nearly 58 inches across, this is the only reclining nude in which Modigliani captured the entire figure within the frame. The woman lies on her left side against warm red and ochre tones, her elongated body twisted with the artist's characteristic distortions.

The painting belongs to Modigliani's celebrated series of 22 reclining nudes created between 1916 and 1919. When first exhibited at Galerie Berthe Weill in Paris, police shut down the show on opening day, scandalized by the frank depiction of the female form visible from the street. It was Modigliani's only solo exhibition during his short life.

Originally owned by poet and dealer Léopold Zborowski, who acquired it directly from Modigliani, the painting traded for $26.9 million in 2003. Fifteen years later, it sold at Sotheby's New York for $157.2 million, setting the house record and ranking as the fourth most expensive artwork ever auctioned. Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis in 1920 at just 35 years old.