Head of a Woman, Lowered

After Wilhelm Lehmbruck went to live in Paris in 1910, the first work he produced there was Standing Female Figure (stone cast, 1911, Hamburger Kunsthalle), which brought him great success at the Salon d’Automne. Under the influence of the Parisian art scene and the legacy of Auguste Rodin, he then turned his attention to the theme of the fragment. Lehmbruck began to divide Standing Female Figure into torsi, thus reducing the figure to its basic elements. During this process, he created versions that showed the trunk with the head. Lehmbruck also created Head of a Woman, Lowered, here singling out a bust segment. The hollow swing of the figure’s shoulders clearly indicates that this is a fragment. The angle of the head conveys the expression of melancholy dejection, as does the lowered gaze and the small, closed mouth. With his wife, Anita, serving as model, Lehmbruck first worked the bust in plaster, then cast it in artificial stone cement, which he subsequently painted. Around 1911, Lehmbruck was to undergo a radical change in style that gave rise to an expressive elongation of and a renewed introspection in his figures.