Head of a Woman

Artist Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (English, 1833 - 1898)

Dateca. 1870

MediumGraphite on paper

DimensionsOverall: 6 5/8 × 6 5/8 inches (16.83 × 16.83 cm)

Credit LineGift of Milton McGreevy

Object numberF59-65/14

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Drawings Collection of Milton McGreevy, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 7-April 4, 1965, no. 107, as Head of a Woman.

Old Master Drawings Selected from the Collection of Milton McGreevy: Gifts and Bequest to Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 6-June 5, 1983, no. 29, as Head of a Woman.

Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis, MO, September 22-December 3, 1989, unnumbered, as Head of a Woman.

Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 17-March 25, 1990, no cat., as Head of a Woman.

The Feminine Mystique: Portraits of and by Women, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 9-August 11, 2013, no cat., as Head of a Woman.

Gallery Label

This drawing had an intimate, personal connection for Burne-Jones since it represented Maria Zambaco, a Greek sculptress living in London, who was the artist's lover from 1868 to 1872. Burne-Jones carefully represented her sensitive features such as her deep-set eyes and delicately arched upper lip. His treatment of her wavy hair, in contrast, was far more sketchy. Burne-Jones often idealized women, and this portrait has an ethereal effect as Maria's head seems almost to float in space.

Provenance

Durlacher Brothers, New York, by November 12, 1958;

Purchased from Durlacher Brothers by Milton McGreevy (1903-1980), Shawnee Mission, KS, November 12, 1958-1959 [1];

His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1959.

NOTES:

[1] Durlacher Brothers invoice, November 12, 1958, NAMA Archives, MS007 Milton McGreevy Records.

Published References

“Drawings Collection of Milton McGreevy,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 4, no. 6 (March 7-April 4, 1965): 48, 51, (repro.), as Head of a Woman.

Ross E. Taggart, Old Master Drawings Selected from the Collection of Milton McGreevy: Gifts and Bequest to Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1982), unpaginated, (repro.), as Head of a Woman.

Roger Ward and Mark S. Weil, Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, exh. cat. (St. Louis, MO: Washington University Gallery of Art, 1989), 9, 60, (repro.), as Head of a Woman.

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