Roman marble head of a woman - ex Duke University of Art Museum
€25,000
available
Object number
AR3214
| Object: |
Life-size head of a woman
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| Material: |
Marble
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| Date: |
About 2nd - 3rd century A.D. Roman Empire |
| Description: |
The head is slightly tilted to the right, the eyes looking slightly to the ground. The slightly wavy locks are parted in the center and arranged thoroughly around and above the ears, finally bound into a bun at the neck. The ears are partially left free. Strong chin, lips slightly closed in a suggested smile.
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| Size: |
Height 26 cm without and 44.5 cm with the modern marble base. Width 21 cm, depth 25 cm. The modern base has an area of 20 cm x 20 cm.
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| Condition: |
The head itself excellently preserved, incl. the polish and fine surface details. Professionally restored at lips, hair and other parts of the face using a white substance. The nose is re-modeled using a greying material. Chips on ears and chin. The break at the neck is uneven and drilled for a metal dowel, which is used to mount the head on a modern marble base. At the side old sticker "Coll. Ernest Brummer" and inscription "P 284", and stickers "N 943", "P 294". A comparison of the current condition to the condition of the head in the 1920s as depicted on the photograph from the Brummer collection card implies that the forehead, as well as parts of the hair and eyes have in the meantime been either professionally restored or cleaned. |
| Provenance: |
Acquired 2021 in a US auction house. Ex US private collection Williams (Gainesville, Georgia). Acquired in this from Howard Dawson Antiques, Hudson, NY, October 14th 2003. Ex Hesse Galleries Auction Services, Otego, NY, April 12tth 2003, Lot 118. Ex Duke University of Art Museum, Inv. no. 1980.2.4. Ex Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 3rd auction June 8-9, 1949. Ex Ernest Brummer (1891-1964) collection, New York. Acquired by Brummer from Mikas in 1920, as noted on a dedicated record card with photograph, which is now stored at the Cloisters Library and Archives, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). Although no further details were noted on the card, "Mikas" allegedly refers to the collection of Jannis Demetrios Mikas (1885-1956), Paris. This fits to the acquisition price in francs noted on the card, as well as to the fact that the main Brummer gallery was located in Paris until 1940. |
| Ernest Brummer collection: |
Ernest Brummer was an ancient arts dealer from Hungary, who opened a gallery in Paris in 1906 together with his brothers, and later also a gallery in New York. In 1940, Brummer closed the Paris gallery and fled from the Nazis to the USA, where he and his brother continued to operate the New York gallery until 1949. Brummer apparently acquired this portrait head during the time when he lived in Paris, and brought it to the USA not later than 1940. According to the MET Museum data base it was offered at a Parke-Bernet Galleries auction in 1949 but apparently was not sold, since the Brummer collection constituted the founding stock of the Duke University of Art Museum (DUMA) which was founded in 1969. |
| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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