Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound

1914

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

Artist, French, 1891 - 1915

This free-standing marble sculpture shows a man’s abstracted head and shoulders carved in angular planes. The top third of the piece is a smooth head, perhaps bald, with a curling, pointed oval shape coming down the middle of his forehead. The middle third is the elongated, rectangular face. Closed eyes are suggested by thin ridges carved in deep recesses on either side of a long nose, which is shaped by flat planes. The mouth is delineated by a thick, downturned, upper lip, and a narrow goatee hangs from the pointed chin. The bottom third is the shoulders, suggested by a downward-facing arch carved on the side we can see. The surface is rough and unpolished with a few streaks of gray in the sand-colored marble. This photograph shows the sculpture angled to our right against a pale gray background.

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; sold to Ford Madox Hueffer [1873-1939, later Ford Madox Ford], London.[1] Ezra Pound [1885-1972], London, and Rapallo, Merano, and Venice, Italy; his estate; purchased 1988 through (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York) by Raymond [1921-2007] and Patsy Nasher [d. 1988], Dallas; RDN & PRN Foundation, Dallas; gift 2009 to NGA.
[1] Provenance according to Evelyn Silber, Gaudier-Brzeska: Life and Art, London, 1996: no. 79, 269-270. The sculpture is included in the artist's List of Works as "Ezra Pound, buste," and sold for 2 Pounds, 10 shillings. It stood in the front garden of South Lodge, the residence of Violet Hunt on Campden Hill Road, where Hueffer lived until 1918.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1914

  • Twentieth Century Art: A Review of Modern Movements, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1914, no. 154, as Bust of Mr. Ezra Pound.

1957

  • XI Triennale di Milano, Milan, 1957, no. 9.

1982

  • Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Ezra Pound: A Friendship, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, 1982, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Tate Gallery, London, 1982-1987.

1985

  • Pound's Artists: Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts in London, Paris and Italy, Tate Gallery, London, 1985, no. 1.

1987

  • British Art in the 20th Century: The Modern Movement, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1987, no. 58, repro.

  • British Modernist Art 1905-1930, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1987-1988, no. 71, repro.

  • A Century of Modern Sculpture: The Patsy and Raymond Nasher Collection, Dallas Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Forte di Belvedere, Florence; Staatgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich, 1987-1989, no. 29, repro. (shown only in Madrid).

1992

  • The New British Sculpture: Selection Works from the Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Collection, University of North Texas Art Gallery, Denton, 1992.

1996

  • Masterworks of Modern Sculpture: The Nasher Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2003

  • From Rodin to Calder: Masterworks of Modern Sculpture from the Nasher Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, 2003-2004.

2008

  • In Pursuit of the Masters: Stories from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, 2008-2009.

2010

  • The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-1918, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; Tate Britain, London, 2010-2011, no. 1, repro. (shown only in Durham and London).

Bibliography

1943

  • Goldring, Douglas. South Lodge: Reminiscences of Violet Hunt, Ford Madox Ford and the English Review Circle. London, 1943: 63.

1978

  • Cole, Roger. Burning to Speak: The Life and Art of Henri Gaudier Brzeska. Oxford, 1978: 36-38, no. 50, figs.

1983

  • Lewison, Jeremy, ed. Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Sculptor, 1891-1915 Exh. cat. Kettle's Yard Gallery, Cambridge, 1983; City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 1983-1984; York City Art Gallery, 1984: 4, 24, 52-53 (under no. 71 and 72), repros. (The NGA work was not in the exhibition.)

1989

  • Grove, Nancy. Isamu Noguchi: Portrait Sculpture_Exh. Cat. Washington City, 1989: 5, fig. 6. (The NGA work was not in the exhibition.)

1992

  • Brodsky, Joseph. Watermark. New York, 1992: 68-74.

1993

  • Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Exh. cat. Musée des beaux-arts, Orléans 1993; Musée d’art modern, Toulouse, 1993: 30-31, 66, 68, fig. 4, 5. (The NGA work was not in the exhibition.)

1996

  • Silber, Evelyn. Gaudier-Brzeska: Life and Art. Photographs by David Finn. London and New York, 1996: 42-43; 55, 94, 113, 119, 125, 128, 130, 131, 269-270, no. 79, fig. 45, 121, 122.

2004

  • Wilson, Robert A. Epitome of Desire: The Story of the Nashers of Texas and One of the World's Greatest Sculpture Collections Created by Their Passion and Obsession for the Best. Austin, 2004: unpaginated, repros.

  • Wood, Jon. "Heads and Tales: Gaudier Brzeska's Hieretic Head of Ezra Pound and the Making of an Avant-garde Homage." In Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain, c.1880-1930, edited by David J. Getsy. London and Burlington, 2004: 192-217, figs. 7.1, 7.2, 7.4, 7.9

2025

  • Jones, Finn-Olaf. "Venice in Winter, With a Poet as Our Guide." New York Times 174, no. 60,424 (February 8, 2025): C8.

Wikidata ID

Q27781615

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