El violonchelista

Modigliani painted The Cellist in 1909, three years after arriving in Paris and while falling under two influences at once. One was Cezanne, whose brooding browns and short dabbed strokes, and the heavy tipped-forward pose of the musician, run right through the canvas. The other was sculpture. Around this time he grew close to the sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who drew him toward carving stone and nearly away from painting altogether. You can feel that pull in how solid and blocklike the cellist's bent body sits, the instrument tucked against him like part of his own frame. On the back of the same canvas is a portrait study of that very friend, Brancusi.