Ideal Head

Maker Elie Nadelman (American, 1882 - 1946)

Additional Title(s)

Head of a Young Woman

Collections

ClassificationsSCULPTURE

Dateca. 1908-1911

Mediummarble

Dimensionsheight: 12 5/8 in. (32 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation Acquisition Fund for American Art and Hannah and Russel Kully

Status

On view

Label TextBorn in Poland, Elie Nadelman moved to Paris early in his career, where he met Pablo Picasso and studied ancient sculpture at the Louvre. This work, one of a series of idealized heads he made in this period, shows these various influences.

Its format and material recalls ancient classical statuary, while the simplified repeated curve in the brow and hair reflect Nadelman’s interest in abstract beauty: “all that is logical is beautiful,” he once proclaimed.

Object number2017.10