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Head of Isabel: M.50-1997

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 2

Titles

Head of Isabel

Maker(s)

Sculptor: Giacometti, Alberto

Entities

Categories

Description

Bronze with dark brown patina. The sitter faces front. Her hair is dressed in a short bouffant style reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian wigs.

Notes

History note: The sitter, Isabel Delmer (1912-92), née Nicholas (later Lambert and Rawsthorne), by whom lent to The Fitzwilliam Museum in 1987; by descent to Juliet Ryan Morchoisne

Legal notes

Purchased with the Ann Ashard Webb Fund, and grants from the National Art Collections Fund, and the Museums and Galleries Commission Regional Fund administered by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Measurements and weight

Depth: 24.4 cm
Height: 29.1 cm
Width: 21.8 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Paris ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1997) by Morchoisne, Juliet Ryan

Dating

1930s
20th Century
Circa 1936 CE - 1962 CE

Note

The sitter was English painter and designer, Isabel Rawsthorne (née Nicholas, 1912-1992). A successful artist in her own right, Rawsthorne studied at the RCA in London, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris and spent two years in the studio of Jacob Epstein. During the war, she worked for the Poltiical Warfare Executive and subsequently painted, depicting dancers, and later, the Essex countryside where she lived for the last forty years of her life. Her paintings were also adapted into designs for the ballet and opera. Her early career brought her into the friendship circles of many high-profile male artists in London and Paris for whom she modelled, including Jacob Epstein, Andre Derain, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon. During the second half of the twentieth century, Rawsthorne was better-known as a muse and model but more recent critical attention has focussed again on her own, impressive, artistic output.

The sitter was Isabel Rawsthorne (1912-92), née Nicholas, (later Delmer, and Lambert).

This head, also known as ‘The Egyptian Woman’, was produced during Giacometti’s period of intense pre-occupation with drawing and modelling from life between 1935 and 1940. Another portrait, Head of Isabel II of about 1938, is in the Sainsbury Collection at the University of East Anglia. The survival of both heads is exceptional because Giacometti destroyed much of his work during the 1930s.

People, subjects and objects depicted

Project

  • Sculpture UK

Components of the work

Surface composed of patina

Materials used in production

Bronze

Techniques used in production

Casting (process) : Bronze, cast, with dark brown patina
Patinating

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: Alberto Giacometti
  • Location: Near lower edge
  • Type: Signature
  • Text: Susse Fondeur Paris
  • Location: Near lower edge at back
  • Type: Mark

Inscription present: rectangular, puce-pink paper

  • Text: XXXI Biennale Internazionale d'Arte di Venezi 1962/438
  • Location: Stuck inside neck
  • Method of creation: Printed in black
  • Type: Label

Inscription present: in black at the top '9' and at the bottom '77327', and over the end of 'VISITAT'. '7', the last handwritten

  • Text: 'MERCI' and 'DOGNA ITALIA' and 'VISITAT[?]', and
  • Method of creation: Printed in pale purple
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.50-1997
Primary reference Number: 13789
External ID: CAM_CCF_M_50_1997
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 18 December 2023 Last processed: Monday 18 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Head of Isabel" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/13789 Accessed: 2024-11-24 10:01:47

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/13789 |title=Head of Isabel |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-24 10:01:47|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-13789

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