Head of a Woman (Asiatic eyes)

This drawing by the French-born American sculptor Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935) belongs with a series of head sketches he made in the 1920s. The portrayal of a young woman with slanting eyes shows the influences of the various cultures the artist had absorbed in the cosmopolitan city of New York, as well as of ancient art with which he acquainted himself in American museums. The woman’s head, rendered in concise forms using only a few brush strokes, exudes the peace and dignity of archaic sculptural works. During the same period, he produced several head sculptures, among them Splendidly Simple of 1923, which - as its name suggests - characterizes Lachaise’s style based on condensely executed forms of the human body.