Portrait of Dr. Paul Alexandre

Against a green-toned background stands a red-bearded man. He wears dark clothing, with his left hand on his hip, and looks out at the viewer with his head slightly tilted. At the left edge is a reddish-brown curtain, and a blue painting hangs behind him. The vertical canvas takes in the figure down to about the knees. It is oil on canvas, measuring 100.5 x 81.5 cm.

According to the museum's commentary, Modigliani went to Paris in January 1906 to paint, and in November of the following year, 1907, he met the physician Paul Alexandre, the model for this portrait. The doctor was the first person to take an interest in Modigliani's work, and until he went off to the First World War in 1914, he is said to have continued to buy his works as a patron and to encourage him.

Three portraits of the doctor were painted in 1909, and the museum states that this one is the most accomplished of them. Like Woman in a Riding Habit (New York, private collection) of the same year, it is a three-quarter-length figure with the left hand on the hip, and it is said to recall the tradition of Italian painting since the Renaissance, in which an art patron funds a painter to have his portrait painted.