Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on loan
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edgar-degas-988" aria-label="More by Edgar Degas" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edgar Degas</a>
Head a Woman
Presented by A.E. Anderson through the Art Fund 1924
adults
body
head / face
people
woman
<p>Little is known of the history of this painting or the woman's identity. The exceptionally small size of the work indicates that it may be a study, or even a fragment from a larger canvas. Unusually for Degas, the painting itself offers few clues about the identity of the model or the significance of her melancholic gaze. It is possible that it should be seen one of a number of small studies of female figures executed by Degas in the early 1870s on the theme of different emotions and moods. These pictures were part of Degas' project to examine and record different aspects of female experience in public and private life.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 March 1997
5 March 1997
1997-03-05
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
1997-03-05
Long Loan to the National Gallery
Loan-out
20 October 2002 – 11 May 2003
2003-05-11
20 October 2002 – 12 January 2003
2003-01-12
2002-10-20
Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, USA)
http://www.dia.org
16 February 2003 – 11 May 2003
2003-05-11
2003-02-16
Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, USA)
http://www.philamuseum.org
2002-10-20
Edgar Degas: The Painter of Dancers
Loan-out
Head of a Woman
support: 175 × 197 mm
Presented by A.E. Anderson through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1924
<p>Little is known of the history of 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> or the woman's identity. The exceptionally small size of the work indicates that it may be a study, or even a fragment from a larger <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>. Unusually for Degas, the painting itself offers few clues about the identity of the model or the significance of her melancholic gaze. It is possible that it should be seen one of a number of small studies of female figures executed by Degas in the early 1870s on the theme of different emotions and moods. These pictures were part of Degas' project to examine and record different aspects of female experience in public and private life.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Edgar Degas</b> 1834-1917</p>
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/degas-head-of-a-woman-n03833" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03833</span></a> <b>Tête de Femme</b> (Head of a Woman) <i>c</i>.1873</p>
<p>Not inscribed 
<br/>Oil on canvas mounted on millboard, 6 7/8 x 7 3/4 (17.5 x 20) &gt;br&gt;Presented by A.E. Anderson through the NACF 1924 
<br/><i>Prov</i>: [?M. Lafond]; with Leicester Galleries, London, 1922; A.E. Anderson, London 
<br/><i>Lit</i>: P.A. Lemoisne, <i>Degas et son Oeuvre</i> (Paris 1946), No.330, Vol.2, p.168, repr. p.169 (dated <i>c</i>.1873); Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino, <i>L'Opera Completa di Degas</i> (Milan 1970), No.369, p.104, repr. p.103</p>
<p>This head may have been cut down from a larger <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>. In the Leicester Galleries' records the name of the previous owner is almost illegible but looks like Lafond: this would probably be Paul Lafond, a friend of Degas' and author of an authoritative study on his work.</p>
<p><b>Published in</b>: 
<br/>Ronald Alley, <i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.145, reproduced p.145</p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults body head / face people woman