About this artwork

This head derives from a life-size sculpture of a limbless female figure looking over her left shoulder. Adopting a practice popularised by Rodin, Lehmbruck made several variants of the component parts, casting the head alone in terracotta, bronze and cement. This terracotta cast is probably posthumous and is thought to have been made by the Lehmbruck family in the 1930s. The concern with calm, classical values shows the influence of the French sculptor Aristide Maillol. Although he was German, Lehmbruck lived in Paris for a number of years and his work was more influenced by French sculpture than German art.

Updated before 2020

see media
  • artist:
    Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881 - 1919) German
  • title:
    Mädchenkopf, sich umwendend (Head of a Girl Looking Over her Shoulder)
  • date created:
    1913 - 1914 (posthumous cast)
  • materials:
    Terracotta
  • measurements:
    39.50 x 27.00 x 18.50 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh: purchased 1993
  • accession number:
    GMA 3731
  • gallery:
  • subject:
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? Tell us what you think.

Wilhelm Lehmbruck

Wilhelm Lehmbruck