Head of a Woman

• OSSIP ZADKINE

  Head of  a Woman
  

• 35 x 17 x 25,3 m
  Purchase by the City of Paris with the funds from the Valentine Prax bequest, 2009
  Formerly in the Eileen Gray Collection
• [1924]
• Limestone, with grey-green marble inlays and polychrome highlights
• Inv. 2009.1.1
• Musée Zadkine
• Room 3

This limestone head with eyes inlaid with grey marble was sculpted by Zadkine in the 1920s. It was therefore produced in his workshop in the Rue Rousselet which he occupied until 1928, the date when he moved to the Rue d’ Assas. It was acquired by the Musée Zadkine with funds from the bequest in 2009.
For a long time it belonged to the famous Irish interior designer, Eileen Gray. In the 1920s, Eileen Gray had a gallery in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré under the name of Jean Désert where she presented her designs (lamps, lacquers, screens and rugs). Zadkine was invited to exhibit his sculptures there. In all likelihood, it was on this occasion that Eileen Gray acquired the head presented here.
A charming anecdote is reported by Peter Adam, Eileen Gray's biographer, about this piece which can be seen in the background of a photograph on the mantelpiece of the designer’s Parisian apartment in the Rue Bonaparte. "One day an over-zealous maid tried to give it a wash. To her great horror -- and Eileen's amusement -- the red of the lips disappeared. Zadkine was called on to help, and willingly agreed to repaint them".
Zadkine sculpted a large number of heads. However, only three of them - including the head presented here - have inlaid eyes and painted lips.  This head is emblematic of the refined stylisation of form which governed Zadkine's art in the 1920s. With it, this deliberately primitivist stylisation achieved its point of balance.