Musée de l’Orangerie · 1915
Portrait of Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota
Amedeo Modigliani
Modigliani flattens Guillaume's face into elongated, mask-like planes borrowed from the African and Cycladic sculpture he studied obsessively, but keeps this a real likeness of a real dealer, not an anonymous type.
Why it matters
Modigliani flattens Guillaume's face into elongated, mask-like planes borrowed from the African and Cycladic sculpture he studied obsessively, but keeps this a real likeness of a real dealer, not an anonymous type.
Look closer
Look for the hand-painted words "PAUL GUILLAUME" and "NOVO PILOTA" worked directly into the canvas like a signboard, and the two eyes rendered differently — one with a dark pupil, one left almost blank — Modigliani's signature device for suggesting an inner, unreadable gaze.
Guillaume was the young dealer who first championed Modigliani in Paris; decades later, Guillaume's own collection — assembled with the artists he discovered — became the founding core of this museum, so this portrait shows the dealer painted by the very circle that built the room you're standing in.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €7.4–13.8 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.