Head of a Woman

A permanent expatriate best known for his allegorical and literary subjects, Vedder opened a studio in Rome during the late 1860s and quickly established a reputation as a distinctive painter, sculptor, muralist, illustrator, and author. This elegant pastel resonates with other works from the late 1890s, a time when the artist was drawing classical heads that often found their way into both easel and mural painting. While this drawing cannot be linked to a larger composition, the head is suggestive of figures in Vedder’s 1884 masterwork—illustrations for a deluxe edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the 12th-century Persian text, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The painter found his ideal subject in this work, which combines meditative poetry and monumental design, and considered it his major artistic achievement. The ideal head also echoes earlier works by the artist, such as The Met’s The Lost Mind (1864-65).