Girl's Head
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Saint-John-de-Braye 1891 – Neuville-Saint-Vaast 1915)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1912 - 1913
Materials
Pencil on paper
Measurements
545 x 420 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mottisfont, Hampshire
NT 769727
Summary
Pencil drawing on paper, Girl's Head by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Saint-John-de-Braye 1891 – Neuville-Saint-Vaast 1915), 1912/13.
Full description
Pencil drawing on paper, Girl's Head by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Saint-John-de-Braye 1891 – Neuville-Saint-Vaast 1915), 1912/13. A French sculptor and draughtsman, Gaudier-Brzeska moved to London in 1911. His experimental work was inspired by objects from other cultures, particularly the striking, simplified features of the ‘Primitive’ masks and sculptures he saw at the British Museum. He allied himself with the Vorticists, champions of dynamic, often geometric abstract art. They joined forces with the Camden Town painters to form the London Group, of which Gaudier-Brzeska was a founder member. His love of energy and simplicity has resulted here in a lively portrait of a girl, who has been captured with just a few highly expressive lines. We see the bounce of her hair, her smiling eyes and wide mouth, even a stylised suggestion of teeth. Gaudier-Brzeska’s great potential was ended by the First World War. He was killed in action, fighting with the French army.
Provenance
Presented by Derek Hill (1916 - 2000) through The National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund) in 1996
Credit line
Mottisfont Abbey,The Derek Hill Collection (presented to the National Trust through the National Art-Collections Fund in 1996)
Makers and roles
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Saint-John-de-Braye 1891 – Neuville-Saint-Vaast 1915) , artist