Oil paint on wood
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-s-currie-968" aria-label="More by John S. Currie" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John S. Currie</a>
Head a Woman
Presented by Mr and Mrs Julian Lousada through the Art Fund 1925
adults
body
clothing and personal items
earring
head / face
individuals: female
Mary
named individuals
necklace
objects
people
portraits
woman
painting oil paint wood
Head of a Woman
support: 454 × 349 mm
frame: 684 × 585 × 52 mm
Presented by Mr and Mrs Julian Lousada through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1925
<p><b>N04090</b> HEAD OF A WOMAN 1913
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Currie 1913’ t.r.
<br/>Oil on panel, 17 7/8×13 3/4 (43×35).
<br/>Presented by Mr and Mrs Julian G. Lousada through the National Art-Collections Fund 1925.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Julian G. Lousada from the artist through the Chenil Gallery.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> (?) <i>Drawings by Augustus E. John, Paintings by Derwent Lees and other Works</i>, Chenil Gallery, January 1914 (67), as ‘Head of a Girl’; <i>Twentieth Century Art</i>, Whitechapel Art Gallery, May–June 1914 (333), as ‘Head of a Woman’, lent by Julian G. Lousada.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>N.A.C.F. Report 1925</i>, 1926, p.36; Randolph Schwabe, ‘Reminiscences of Fellow Students’ in <i>Burlington Magazine</i>, LXXXII, 1943, pl.2, facing p.9.</p>
<p>The sitter has not been identified, but an indirect clue to her identity may be found in an account of the artist's <i>ménage</i> written by Sir Michael Sadler and published in Michael Sadleir's <i>Michael Ernest Sadler, a Memoir by his Son</i>, 1949, p.253. Late in 1913, when Currie was living with Miss Dolly Henry at Hampstead, Dolly's dark-haired Irish cousin Mary came to stay ‘in a status between guest and servant’. It is just possible that she sat for her <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a>, since this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, which is dated 1913, shows a dark-haired girl, of slightly peasant-like Celtic features, whose intense expression fits Sir Michael's description of cousin Mary.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults body clothing and personal items earring head / face individuals: female Mary named individuals necklace objects people portraits woman