2003.11.14
Head of a Woman (Tete de Jeune Femme)
Artists
Félix Bracquemond
(Paris, France, 5/22/1833 - 10/29/1914, Paris, France);
Georges Braque
(1882 - 1963)
Title
Head of a Woman (Tete de Jeune Femme)
Creation Date
ca. 1920-1922
Century
early 20th century
Dimensions
18 15/16 in. x 25 in. (48.1 cm x 63.5 cm)
Object Type
drawing
Creation Place
Europe, France
Medium and Support
crayon on paper
Credit Line
Bequest of William H. Alexander, in memory of his friend, Howard Hoyt Shiras, M.D.
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
2003.11.14
When poet Francis Ponge collaborated with painter Georges Braque on the first publication of his drawings in 1950, they selected this work, which was then in the Collection Maeght. For Braque, drawings were usually preparatory, “executed with an eye on a painting to come, or during its composition,” as Ponge writes. They were vehicles of innovation, which contributed to Braque’s ability to modernize art and, together with Pablo Picasso, bring it into the “era of the automobile.” Following the catastrophic experience of World War I, in which Braque was severely wounded, he and others of his generation developed a new interest in the figure and the tradition of classicism that reflected a “return to order.”