About This Artwork
Constantin Brâncusi
French, born Romania, 1876-1957
Portrait of a Woman, 1911
Black crayon and graphite on light gray wove paper, discolored to tan, laid down on cardboard
620 x 429 mm (primary support); 632 x 450 mm (secondary support)
Signed recto, lower right, in graphite: "C. Brancusi"; inscribed, lower right, in graphite: "Hommage à Madame Carpenter/Presidente du Arts Club/ C. Brancusi/1917"
Gift of Mrs. Patrick Hill in Memory of her mother, Rue Winterbotham Carpenter, 1981.302
Prints and Drawings
Not on Display
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
New York, Brummer Gallery, "Brancusi Exhibition," November 17–December 15, 1926; traveled to Chicago, Arts Club, January 4–18, 1927.
Chicago, Arts Club, "Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Drawings by Sculptors Privately Owned by Chicagoans," May 10–May 30, 1932, cat. 10, as Head of a Girl.
Chicago, Arts Club, "Modern Sculpture and Drawings by Sculptors," 1933, cat. 76, as Head of Girl.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, "Modern Drawings," 1944, p. 88.
Chicago, Arts Club, "Drawings 1916/1966: An Exhibition on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Arts Club of Chicago," February 28–March 11, 1966, n.p., cat. 6 (ill.), as Portrait, c. 1927.
Chicago, Arts Club, "Portrait of an Era: Rue Winterbotham Carpenter and the Arts Club of Chicago 1916–1931: Seventieth Anniversary Exhibition," September 15–November 1, 1986, n.p. (ill.), cat. 19, as Portrait, c. 1927.
The Art Institute of Chicago, "Twentieth Century Collection Reinstalled," June 7, 1991-February 28, 1992.
Chicago, Arts Club, "Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition: 1916–1991," May 11–June 26, 1992, pp. 23 (ill), 101, dated 1927.
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, "Constantin Brancusi," April 14-August 21, 1995, p. 302 (ill.), cat. 134, dated 1926; traveled to Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 8–December 31, 1995.
Publication History
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Joseph Winterbotham Collection: A Living Tradition (Chicago, 1986), p. 9, fig. 4, dated 1927.
Margherita Andreotti, “Brancusi’s Golden Bird: A New Species of Modern Sculpture,” Museum Studies 19:2 (1993), pp. 146, 149, 198 n.1, figs. 11 and 14, dated 1926.
Marielle Tabart, and Doïna Lemny, La dation Brancusi: dessins et archives, exh. cat. (Paris, 2003), n.p. (ill.).
Ownership History
Rue Winterbotham Carpenter (died 1931), Chicago; by descent to her daughter, Mrs. Patrick Hill; given to the Art Institute, 1981.