Head of a Woman

Best known for his allegorical and literary subjects, Vedder established a studio in Rome during the late 1860s and quickly earned a reputation for his distinctive paintings, sculptures, murals, illustrations, and writings. In this elegant pastel, a strong-featured face, draped in a classical robe, appears still, a beguiling contrast to the agitated cloth and hair swirling around her. This ideal head, which may depict a model or a friend, cannot be linked directly to a larger composition by Vedder. However, it is suggestive of figures in the artist’s 1884 drawings for Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the twelfth-century Persian text, “Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám,” which combined meditative poetry with monumental design.