Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

towards the viewer: The elongated oval of her face, her penetrating blue eyes, the aristocratic nose of the Dadiani, thesharp lines of her eyebrows, her dark hair. A masterful extension of the portrait in my father’s study to the full sensualelegance of her body. The sign said, Nude reclining on her left side, 1911, Private CollectionDoubts rose in my mind. Were those subtly modeled, full thighs, her narrow, elegant ankles, this très-solide, yet wellproportioned derrière, were her full back and the voluptuous creases emanating from the inscrutable shadows betweenher legs, were they truly Alexandra’s or a predilection of the artist? I went back to the other nudes on exhibition, frontalviews of several very different women: splayed on his bed, seated in a red easychair, modestly covering one breast witha silk scarf to make the other stand out more stunningly, or in the apathetic, spent pose after making love.None of them had the subtleties of the Nude reclining on her left side, nor did they have the elegance and imperiousbeauty of Alexandra, her proud, contemptuous face and the skepsis of her look.How and when had she been in Paris? Considering the compromising pose it seemed difficult to imagine that Konradhad been accompanied her. She must have been traveling with one of her female friends. It could not have beenTamara, she was pregnant, Helena? No! Izabel and Marti were the only people who knew the painter colony in Paris. Butthey had been missing for five years.I called my old father that night, and to approach the touchy question of Alexandra in the nude on Modigliani's bed, Icautiously inquired after the whereabouts of the Sisakians in 1911."Marti vanished in Baku and Izabel appeared one night in St. Petersburg," said the tired voice on the other end. "Myparents had a dramatic reunion with her. Later Izabel was pursued by the Okhrana and fled to Paris. It must have been1911. Why, you didn’t come across Izabel’s tracks in Paris?"Now I was sure of my construction."No, but I ran into a trace of Alexandra’s. Did she ever visit Izabel in Paris?"There was silence at the other end of the line. Then he said with a weary voice, "Mother traveled much in those years,leaving us in Elisabeth’s care. She may have been to Paris before Konrads’s trip to China. What ‘traces’ of her did youdiscover?""A painting by Modigliani, which beyond doubt shows Alexandra."I waited for a sound of recognition from him that could spare me a further description. But father had never heard of apainting of his mother except the one in his possession."It’s a fabulous painting, Alexandra in the nude. More than I would ever have been allowed to see, had I been fortunateenough to meet this fascinating woman."I should have kept my mouth shut, but I had to share this discovery with somebody.With a dangerously sharp voice my father began to shout into the phone. "This part of her life is none of your business.All you want to know is, what was her sex life like? I have never seen or heard of a painting of my mother in the nude,and if I did know of such an affair, I would be too embarrassed to tell you."Piqued, I had without malicious intent lifted an edge of the veil which vovered Alexandra’s life and had found her naked inthe bed of a famous painter, and father tells me that this was none of my business?I added insult to injury. "How about Vladimir, for example?"There was silence on the line. Did father misunderstand me on purpose? I now regretted the edge in my question.Ashamed I listened to his tired, old voice."I told you, that Vladimir was fully occupied with Tamara in those years, he did not have an affair with my mother, and hecertainly did not go to Paris with her. But you are right, Mother did accompany Izabel to Paris in 1911 to cover up Izabel’sflight from the Okhrana. There existed an enigmatic postcard she wrote to Konrad from Paris. It was written in code. Sheapologized that she had deserted him so willfully. These were the years during which my parents’ marriage was badlystrained. — But I have never heard of a painting of her by Modigliani."Next morning I called the museum to ask for the provenance of the painting, but the Museum refused to discuss itsdetails over the phone. "Sir, we are sorry, the condition of this loan was that the owner remain anonymous. Beyond thatthe provenance of the painting is described in our catalogue raisonnée which you can buy at the exhibition desk."I went back and purchased the expensive catalog. It would provide me with a fair reproduction of the painting, which Iwas unlikely ever to see again.In the commentary I found the following history of the sales of the picture in the telegraphic style of the art dealers whichcan speak volumes, hide fates, jealousies, madness, and occasionally more."Nude reclining on her left side". Loaned anonymously. Tentatively dated 1911, Provenance.: A. Dadiani, St. Petersburg1911; S. I. Manovsky, Paris, 1912; private collect. Zürich 1918; Sotheby auct. catalogue #115, London 5 Oct. 1950;private. collect., Paris, 1950-present.Here was the final proof.My dear Alexandra held on to the beauty for less than a year. Was the painting in storage? Was it too provocative tohang in their bedroom? No wonder my father knew nothing about it. And Konrad? Considering their sacred honesty, hemust have known of the painting. And in the end old Manovsky fell in love with it. He must have known who the woman inthe painting was. At the end of the World War I, Manovsky had cashed it in Switzerland. By this exigency the painting164