Léopold Zborowski (1889–1932), a Polish poet, writer and art dealer, was born in Warsaw into a Jewish family. Zborowski and his wife Anna were contemporaries with Parisian artists such as Modigliani, Chaim Soutine and André Derain. In latter years of the 1910’s Zborowski had become Modigliani’s primary art dealer and friend, organising his expositions and letting the artist use his house as an atelier. The relationship between patron and artist became close enough that in 1915 Modigliani drew a naked portrait of Zborowski as John the Baptist. Zborowski was also the first art dealer of René Iché, Chaim Soutine, Maurice Utrillo, Émile Savitry, Marc Chagall and André Derain. As Modigliani’s art dealer, Zborowski accumulated a small fortune, which he lost during the economic crisis of 1929, ultimately dying poor in Paris in 1932. Modigliani completed three portraits of his patron, the most famous being the following plate, which sold for $1,464,000 at Sotheby’s in 2003.
Modigliani’s portrait of his close friend is, as well as the other two surviving canvases, a particularly sympathetic rendering of the subject. In spite of the artist’s typical conventions, a great deal of care has been taken to present the sitter at his best. The elongated neck is strong and powerful at the base, giving the impression that Zborowski was an influential person, while the fine features of the face, including the beard and moustache, are depicted with great delicacy, with no sign of corrections or alterations being made. The diagonal positioning of the eyes is softened by the half-closing eyelids and boyish appearance of Zborowski’s facial features.