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A sculpture of the head and shoulders of a girl.

The sculpture shows a head and shoulder portrait of a girl. The head is tilted slightly to the left and down and is crowned with short curled hair. The head rises on a long slender neck from a base of uneven width. The surface is pink in tone and mottled with areas of lighter and dark tones.

Gallery Text

Head of a Girl belongs to the expressionist body of work that Lehmbruck began to create in Paris around 1911, after meeting the sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Alexander Archipenko. Rejecting the conventional approach to the figure that he had perfected during his training at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Lehmbruck developed a new style in which the human form was elongated, attenuated, and greatly simplified. He quickly gained fame through his participation in significant exhibitions of modern art, such as the 1912 Berlin Secession and the Armory Show in New York in 1913. Lehmbruck experimented with partial casts of full figures in a variety of materials. Head of a Girl is based on his sculpture Contemplative Woman (1913/14). Casts of this work exist in terracotta, cast stone, and tinted plaster.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR34.196
People
Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German (Duisburg, Germany 1881 - 1919 Berlin, Germany)
Title
Head of a Girl
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Mädchenkopf; Frauenkopf; Mädchenkopf auf schlankem Hals--Kopf der Grossen Sinnenden
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1913
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/225860

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1440, Modern and Contemporary Art, Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pink-tinted plaster, painted
Dimensions
44.6 x 36 x 19.5 cm (17 9/16 x 14 3/16 x 7 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Dr. Wurz Collection, Stuttgart. [Graphisches Kabinett, Munich]. [Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin], sold; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1934.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Museum Purchase
Accession Year
1934
Object Number
BR34.196
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Dietrich Schubert, Wilhelm Lehmbruck: Catalogue raisonné der Skulpturen, 1898-1919, Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft Worms (Worms, 2001), cat. no. 67 II C 2, b/w illus. p. 271, fig. 326
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 178
  • Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch (2024), pg. 4, color ill

Exhibition History

  • 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings and Sculpture from the Museum's Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/11/1980 - 08/31/1980
  • 32Q: 1440 Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin (Expressionism), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu