Testa rossa

Modigliani made this in Paris in 1915, and it carries the marks of a decision the war had forced on him. Until then he had wanted to be a sculptor, carving long stone heads with narrow eyes and column necks. But stone was hard to come by once the fighting started, the dust was ruining his weak lungs, and most of his friends had gone to the front. So he went back to paint. The face here keeps the sculptor's thinking, the mask-like stillness and reduced features he had taken from the African carvings then reaching Paris. He worked it up fast on a piece of cardboard, in a red so strong it stops the head from looking quite human. He was 30, and had five years left.