Image scanned and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Ideal Head with Headdress

Artist Elie Nadelman (American, 1882 - 1946)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1912-13

MediumBronze

Dimensions19 x 8 x 10 in. (48.3 x 20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Base: 6 in. (15.2 cm)

InscribedSigned lower right: E. NADELMAN

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.1078

Collections

American Art before 1945

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a bronze sculpture of a female head on a marble base. The figure has a slightly open mouth, and her eyelids are closed. She wears a fashionable hat; a decorative element directly above her nose emphasizes the classic, symmetrical lines on the sculpture.

Label TextElie Nadelman American, 1882–1946 Ideal Head with Headdress, ca. 1912–13 Bronze Symmetry and balance reign in this elegant statue by Elie Nadelman. While the uneven surface of Gaston Lachaise’s giant Man, on view in the center of this gallery, suggests intimate modeling by hand, Nadelman’s Ideal Head is perfectly smooth, exemplifying detachment and control. After launching his career in Paris, the Polish-born sculptor moved to New York in 1914, where his use of classical themes and his emphasis on outline and pattern helped popularize the streamlined Art Deco style among American critics and collectors. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.1078 ProvenancePaul Magriel, New York, N.Y.; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition HistoryPossibly exhibited at Stieglitz's gallery, 291, New York, N.Y., 1914. Ideal Heads, drawings and a plaster model of _Man in the Open Air_ was exhibited. "Inside 291," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., April 12 - June 17, 1984. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. Published ReferencesDennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 201. Patricia Hills and Roberta K. Tarbell, _The Figurative Tradition and the Whitney Museum of American Art: Paintings and Sculpture from the Permanent Collection_, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y., 1980, 101, 176, no. 25. ISBN: 0874131847, 0874270294 Suzanne Ramljak, _Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk_, exh. cat., American Federation of Arts, 2001, 26. ISBN: 1885444214 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 154-155, no. 95. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6