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Artwork

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Year:
Theme: Portrait
ID 3 (Ceroni 57)
Madam Pompadour
1915
Alternate titles: "Madam Pompadour"; Beatrice Hastings as Madam Pompadour; Madame de Pompadour; Madame Pompadour; Mme de Pompadour; Mme. Pompadour
Oil on canvas
24 1/16 x 19 3/4 in. (61.1 x 50.2 cm)
Front, lower center: Madam / Pompadour / 1915; lower right: modigliani
Reverse no longer visible
Creation location: Paris
Art Institute of Chicago. Joseph Winterbotham Collection. (1938.217)
1. See the Commentary below.
2. Galerie Montaigne, Paris, Exposition rétrospective des oeuvres de Modigliani. Exh. cat. (December 11–29, 1920), no. 28. The list of works loaned by the show's organizer Léopold Zborowski (1889–1932), appears on the checklist under the erroneous heading "Gouaches"; most of these works—including Madam Pompadour—can be identified as oils.
3. Archives 162/33/10 vente du 23 mars 1933, Alphonse Bellier, fonds Guy Loudmer. Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), Paris. Marthe Lederlin (née Hatt; 1882–1980), wife of the industrialist Paul Lederlin (1868–1949), was the seller in 1933. The 1933 auction catalogue does not disclose Mme. Lederlin's source.
4. The copy of the auction catalogue in the collection of the Frick Art Reference Library is annotated with the buyers' names.
5. Guillaume's reacquisition of the painting is confirmed by the fact that his widow Domenica Guillaume (1898–1977) owned it by 1937.
6. Domenica Guillaume inherited her husband's vast inventory upon his death in October 1934.
7. The painting was consigned by Domenica Guillaume to the Valentine Gallery by 1937. Apparently at the suggestion of Joseph Winterbotham (1852–1954), Daniel Catton Rich (1904–1976), director of the Art Institute of Chicago, planned to see the painting during an upcoming visit to New York as confirmed by his letter to Winterbotham dated December 29, 1937. Curatorial file, Art Institute of Chicago.
8. "March 1938," no. 1503C, Valentine Dudensing Ledger Books, I.3, p. 96. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Though records confirm that the painting was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago on March 26, 1938, the museum's website lists the date of purchase as March 24, which is the date of the meeting of the Board of Trustees during which the purchase was approved. It is the museum's practice to list this date in provenance records. Tamar Kharatishvili, Art Institute of Chicago, email of March 2, 2026.
Commentary

Beatrice Hastings was the pen name of Emily Alice Haigh (1879–1943), the English poet and writer. She was an established journalist in London, writing for The New Age, a journal that focused on art and politics.1 In 1914 she moved to Paris as the journal's correspondent and met Modigliani soon after her arrival. The two were romantically linked for approximately two years, and while their relationship was volatile—fueled by drugs and alcohol—it nevertheless provided a fertile ground for the artist's transition from sculpture to painting.2 Beatrice served as his model for numerous portraits, the stylistic range of which reveals his artistic experimentation from Pointillism to Cubism, including one work that incorporated newspaper collage Beatrice (Portrait de Béatrice Hastings) (Ceroni 110).

The painting's unique title allows for its certain identification in exhibitions organized by the art dealer Paul Guillaume (1891–1934) that took place in 1916, 1918, and 1920. During this time frame, the painting is documented in an undated photograph taken of the dealer at his gallery-cum-residence at 16, avenue de Villiers, where it can been seen hanging on the wall behind him.3 

The Art Institute of Chicago became the first museum in the United States to purchase a painting by Modigliani when it acquired Madam Pompadour in March 1938. Funds were provided by the Joseph Winterbotham Collection, which was established in 1921 for the purpose of adding modern European paintings to the permanent collection.

Canvas information
Technical analysis of the painting revealed that beneath Madam Pompadour is an unfinished composition, either by Modigliani or by another artist.4 The painting's ground color was identified as white in the 2022 exhibition catalogue for Modigliani Up Close.5

For more on the 1916 and 1918 exhibitions, see the essays published in Spotlight: “Première Exposition,” Lyre et Palette and "Peintres d'aujourd'hui."

  1. Barbara Buckley and Simonetta Fraquelli, "Beatrice," in Barbara Buckley, Simonetta Fraquelli, Nancy Ireson, and Annette King, eds., Modigliani Up Close. Exh. cat. (Philadelphia: The Barnes Foundation, 2022), 64.
  2. Kathleen Brunner, "Biographies of Modigliani's Models: Beatrice Hastings," in Simonetta Fraquelli and Norman Rosenthal, eds., Modigliani and his Models. Exh. cat. (London: The Royal Academy of Arts, 2006), 150.
  3. Guillaume moved to this address in late January 1916. The photograph is in the collection of the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris.
  4. Allison Langley, "Madam Pompadour," in Buckley, Fraquelli, Ireson, and King (2022), op. cit., 60.
  5. Ibid.
Exhibitions
1916 Paris
Lyre et Palette, Paris, 1re exposition: Kisling, Matisse, Modigliani, Ortiz de Zarate, Picasso, et Sculptures négres, November 19–December 5, 1916, no. 13, as Madam Pompadour.
1918 Paris
Galerie Paul Guillaume, Paris, Peintres d’aujourd’hui, December 15–23, 1918, no. 26, as Madam Pompadour.
1920a Paris
Galerie Devambez, Paris, Exposition de Peinture Moderne, January 27–February 12, 1920, no. 60, as Madam Pompadour.
1920c Paris
Galerie Montaigne, Paris, Exposition rétrospective des oeuvres de Modigliani, December 11–29, 1920, no. 28, as Mme. Pompadour.
1937 London
Storran Gallery, London, Modigliani, March 31–April 17, 1937, no. 15, as Madame Pompadour.
1947 Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, The Winterbotham Collection, May 23–June 22, 1947, ill. in b/w, p. 31, as Madam Pompadour.
1949 Dallas
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Winterbotham Collection of Twentieth-Century European Paintings, October 8–November 6, 1949.
1951 Cleveland and New York
Cleveland Museum of Art, Modigliani: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, January 30–March 18, 1951, unnum., as Madam Pompadour. Traveled to: Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 11–June 10, 1951.
1954 Palm Beach
Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, Amedeo Modigliani, 1884–1920, January 8–31, 1954, no. 11, as Madam Pompadour, dated c. 1915. Traveled to: Lowe Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, February 11–28, 1954; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, April 15–May 23, 1954.
Published References
Les Arts à Paris 1918
"'Peintres d'Aujourd'hui' (exhibition checklist)." Les Arts à Paris: Actualités critiques et littéraires des arts et de la curiosité 1, no. 3 (December 15, 1918), no. 26, as Madame Pompadour.
Pfannstiel 1929
Pfannstiel, Arthur. Modigliani: catalogue présumé. Paris: Éditions Marcel Seheur, 1929. Monograph, Catalogue p. 7, as Madam Pompadour.
Hartley 1937
Hartley, L.P. "The Literary Lounger." The Sketch (London), April 7, 1937, ill. in b/w, p. 38, as Madame de Pompadour.
Rothschild 1939
Rothschild, Carol. "Recent Museum Acquisitions." Parnassus (New York) 11, no. 8 (December 1939), listed p. 38, as Madame Pompadour.
Descargues 1951
Descargues, Pierre. Amedeo Modigliani, 1884–1920. Paris: Les Editions Braun et Cie, 1951. Monograph, no. 14, ill. in b/w, as Madame Pompadour.
Jedlicka 1952
Jedlicka, Gotthard. Modigliani: 1884–1920. Erlenbach-Zurich, Switzerland: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1952. Monograph, no. 10, ill. in b/w, as Madam Pompadour.
San Lazzaro 1953
San Lazzaro, Gualtieri di. Modigliani. Paris: Les Éditions du Chêne, 1953. Monograph, no. 20, ill. in b/w, p. 6, as Mme de Pompadour.
Lipchitz 1954
Lipchitz, Jacques. Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920). New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1954, pl. 15, ill. in b/w, as "Madam Pompadour".
Pfannstiel 1956
Pfannstiel, Arthur. Modigliani et son œuvre. Paris: Bibliotèque des Arts, 1956. Monograph, no. 43, ill. in b/w, pl. 11, as Madame Pompadour, dated 1914–15.
Ceroni 1958
Ceroni, Ambrogio. Amedeo Modigliani: Peintre. Milan: Edizioni del milione, 1958. Monograph, no. 42, ill. in b/w, as Madam Pompadour.
Roy 1958
Roy, Claude. Modigliani. James Emmons and Stuart Gilbert, trans. New York: Skira, 1958. Monograph, ill. in color, p. 56, as Madam Pompadour.
Ceroni 1970
Ceroni, Ambrogio. I dipinti di Modigliani. Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1970. Monograph, no. 57, p. 90, ill. in b/w; pl. VIII, ill. in color, as "Madam Pompadour".
Model
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Record last updated March 28, 2026. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Modigliani Initiative. "Madam Pompadour, 1915 (ID 3)." In Amedeo Modigliani Digital Catalogue. catalogue.modigliani-initiative.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=3 (accessed on May 11, 2026).