Study of a Head

ca. 1900

Not on view

A native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, Laura Coombs Hills began her career as an acclaimed painter of miniature portraits. This figural work, produced in the same years, reveals the artist’s considerable talents working on a larger and more ambitious scale. While best known today for her floral still-life subjects in pastel, Hills was celebrated in her lifetime for the fresh, progressive aesthetic she brought to traditional genres of portraiture and still life, both of which were associated with women artists. This profile rendering in bold strokes of pastel of an unidentified elegant young woman, in fashionable attire, reveals the modern confidence of both sitter and artist.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Title: Study of a Head
Artist: Laura Coombs Hills (American, 1859–1952)
Date: ca. 1900
Medium: Pastel on wood pulp cardboard
Dimensions: 28 × 21 1/2 in. (71.1 × 54.6 cm)
Framed: 39 × 34 in. (99.1 × 86.4 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Alfred J. Walker, in memory of Sandra B. Lepore, 2024
Object Number: 2024.234
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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By Laura Coombs Hills

In the same medium

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Persis Blair, Laura Coombs Hills American, Watercolor on ivory, American — Persis Blair
Laura Coombs Hills
ca. 1901

English Primroses, Laura Coombs Hills American, Pastel on paperboard, American — English Primroses
Laura Coombs Hills
1947

Hollyhocks in the Sunshine, Laura Coombs Hills American, Pastel on paperboard, American — Hollyhocks in the Sunshine
Laura Coombs Hills
1920s

Embroidered Picture, Samuel Folwell American, Silk embroidered with silk thread and decorated with paint, ink, and paper, American — Embroidered Picture
Samuel Folwell
Elizabeth Folwell's School
ca. 1800

Nesting Table, Aspen or cottonwood, papier mache, American — Nesting Table
American
1860–70

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