Men Scrutinizing Female Heads - Paintings / Pastels

Ercole de’ Roberti
Head of Mourning Woman
ca. 1490
tempera and oil on panel
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Master of the Half-Lengths
Head of a Woman
ca. 1540
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

John de Critz the Elder
Anne of Denmark, Queen of England
1605
oil on panel
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1620-30
oil on panel
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Nathaniel Thach
Woman in Masque Costume
1649
watercolor miniature on vellum
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Giuseppe Nogari
Study of a Woman
ca. 1740-43
pastel and watercolor
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Pietro Rotari
Sleeping Girl
ca. 1760-62
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Richard Cosway
Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Hopetown
1789
watercolor and gouache miniature on ivory
Yale Center for British Art

Jean-Léon Gérome
Head of an Italian Woman
ca. 1843
oil on canvas
(painted in Rome)
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Charles Edward Perugini
I Know a Maiden Fair to See
1868
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Minneapolis Institute of Art

William Merritt Chase
Head of a Girl
ca. 1880
pastel on brown paper
Yale University Art Gallery

Jean-Jacques Henner
Head of a Young Woman
ca. 1900
oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art

André Derain
Head of a Woman
1923
oil on canvas
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Guy Pène du Bois
Head of a Woman
ca. 1940-50
oil on paper
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor
Study of a Woman
1957
oil on board
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Frank Auerbach
Head of J.Y.M.
1978
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

To One in Paradise

Thou wast that all to me, love,
     For which my soul did pine –
A green isle in the sea, love,
     A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
     And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last! 
     Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
     A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!" – but o'er the Past
     (Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! with me
     The light of Life is o'er!
No more – no more – no more –
     (Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
     Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,
     And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
     And where thy footstep gleams –
In what ethereal dances,
     By what eternal streams!

– Edgar Allen Poe (1843)

Caiserman - Largillière - Bloemaert - Lievens

Ghitta Caiserman
Shells
1980
hand-colored lithograph
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Ghitta Caiserman
Self Portrait
1966
acrylic on paper
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Ghitta Caiserman
Street Scene
1948
oil on panel
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Ghitta Caiserman
Figure
1978
acrylic on panel
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Nicolas de Largillière
Portrait of Marguerite de Sève
1729
oil on canvas
Timken Museum of Art, San Diego

Nicolas de Largillière
Portrait of James IV Roettiers de La Tour
ca. 1730
oil on canvas
Huntington Library and Art Museum, San Marino

Nicolas de Largillière
Portrait of a Young Nobleman and his Tutor
1685
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Nicolas de Largillière
Portrait of an Officer
ca. 1714-15
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Abraham Bloemaert
Baptism of Christ
1602
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Abraham Bloemaert
Rest ont he Flight into Egypt
1592
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Abraham Bloemaert
Studies of a Scribe
ca. 1595
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Abraham Bloemaert
Kneeling Bishop
before 1651
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Jan Lievens
Portrait of artist Daniel Seghers
ca. 1640-50
woodcut
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Jan Lievens
Childhood and Fire
(series, Ages of Man and The Elements)
ca. 1623-25
oil on panel
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Jan Lievens
Youth and Air
(series, Ages of Man and The Elements)
ca. 1623-25
oil on panel
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Jan Lievens
Old Age and Water
(series, Ages of Man and The Elements)
ca. 1623-25
oil on panel
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

from The Sea and the Mirror

[Prospero to Ariel]:

     The extravagant children, who lately swaggered
Out of the sea like gods, have, I think, been soundly hunted
     By their own devils into their human selves:
To all, then, but me, their pardons. Alonso's heaviness
     Is lost; and weak Sebastian will be patient
In future with his slothful conscience – after all, it pays;
     Stephano is contracted to his belly, a minor
But a prosperous kingdom; stale Trinculo receives,

     Gratis, a whole fresh repertoire of stories, and 
Our younger generation its independent joy. 

     Their eyes are big and blue with love; its lighting

Makes even us look new: yes, to-day it all looks so easy.
     Will Ferdinand be as fond of a Miranda
Familiar as a stocking? Will Miranda who is
     No longer a silly lovesick little goose,
When Ferdinand and his brave world are her profession,
     Go into raptures over existing at all?

Probably I over-estimate their difficulties;
     Just the same, I am very glad I shall never
Be twenty and have to go through that business again,
     The hours of fuss and fury, the conceit, the expense. 

– W.H. Auden (1942-44)

Men Scrutinizing Female Heads - Prints

Rembrandt
Head of an Old Woman
ca. 1631
etching
Morgan Library, New York

Giuseppe Garofalo after Annibale Carracci
Head of a Woman
ca. 1750
etching (for drawing manual)
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Louis-Marin Bonnet after Sébastien Leclerc
Head of a Young Woman turned away
1774
hand-colored stipple engraving
Yale Center for British Art

Edward Scriven
Study of Sculpted Head
(Renaissance Woman)
ca. 1820
aquatint
Princeton University Art Museum

Andrew Geddes
Head of an Old Woman
ca. 1820
etching
Tate Gallery

William Strang
Head of a Woman
ca. 1881
etching
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Alphonse Legros
Head of a Young Woman
ca. 1880
etching and drypoint
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Alphonse Legros
Head of a Woman
ca. 1890
etching and drypoint
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

John William Waterhouse
Head of a Woman
1896
lithograph
Yale Center for British Art

Jan Toorop
Head of Marguérite Adolphine Helfrich
1897
drypoint
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Augustus John
The Woolen Hat
1919
etching
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman
1925
lithograph
Yale University Art Gallery

André Derain
Tête de Femme - Rêverie no. 2
1927
lithograph
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

John Souter
Head of a Canadian Woman
ca. 1930
etching
Yale Center for British Art

Gerald Brockhurst
Head of Anais
1944
lithograph
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Roy Lichtenstein
Modern Art II
1996
screenprint
Tate Gallery

A Portrait

For Gertrude Buckman

Yes, she craves diminutive things:

The sea shell and the carousel

Obliquely seen through an opera glass,

And the faint colors on the wind that pass;

Not the red of the loud bell

But the shadow echoed in the well.

Yes, she is aware of innuendo:

The splendid underscoring of these things;

A skull is therefore Mexico,

And the hummingbird sings

Loudest.  Not the jay, nor the gull,

But the ultimate infinitesimal. 

Yes, she believes in overtones:

The statues alive at twilight;

Not the word said, but the word unspoken,

Not the gift, but the token.

To her, a pinpoint instant star

Is the history of all incredible light. 

– Howard Moss (1946)

Alma-Tadema - Batoni - Beckmann - Altdorfer

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (designer)
Steinway Piano
1884-87
piano with exotic inlays and applied paintings
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (designer)
Steinway Piano - detail
1884-87
piano with exotic inlays and applied paintings
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (designer)
Steinway Piano - detail
1884-87
piano with exotic inlays and applied paintings
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (designer)
Armchair
1884-87
exotic woods, ivory, cotton, silk and other materials
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Pompeo Batoni
Triumph of Venice
1737
oil on canvas
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Pompeo Batoni
Richard Aldworth Neville, later Baron Braybrooke
1773
oil on canvas
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1760-70
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Pompeo Batoni
Académie
1769
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Max Beckmann
Snake Woman
1921
drypoint
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Max Beckmann
Women's Bath
1922
drypoint
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Max Beckmann
Still Life with Silver Candlestick
1943
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Max Beckmann
Mother and Daughter
1946
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Albrecht Altdorfer
Virgin and Child with St Anne preparing the Cradle
ca. 1515-20
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Albrecht Altdorfer
Foliated Initial S between Balusters
ca. 1515-20
woodcut
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Albrecht Altdorfer
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1520-30
engraving
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Albrecht Altdorfer
The Resurrection
1518
oil on panel
(predella fragment)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

from The Sea and the Mirror

[Prospero to Ariel]:

     To-day I am free and no longer need your freedom:
You, I suppose, will be off now to look for likely victims;
     Crowds chasing ankles, lone men stalking glory,
Some feverish young rebel among amiable flowers
     In consultation with his handsome envy,
A punctual plump judge, a fly-weight hermit in a dream
     Of gardens that time is for ever outside –
To lead absurdly by their self-important noses.
     Are you malicious by nature? I don't know.
Perhaps only incapable of doing nothing or of
     Being by yourself, and, for all your wry faces,
May secretly be anxious and miserable without
     A master to need you for the work you need.
Are all your tricks a test? If so, I hope you find, next time,
     Someone in whom you cannot spot the weakness
Through which you will corrupt him with your charm. Mine you did
     And me you have: thanks to us both, I have broken
Both of the promises I made as an apprentice –
     To hate nothing and to ask nothing for its love.
All by myself I tempted Antonio into treason;

     However that could be cleared up; both of us know
That both were in the wrong, and neither need by sorry:

     But Caliban remains my impervious disgrace.
We did it, Ariel, between us; you found on me a wish
     For absolute devotion; result – his wreck
That sprawls in the weeds and will not be repaired:
     My dignity discouraged by a pupil's curse,
I shall go knowing and incompetent into my grave.

– W.H. Auden (1942-44)