Head of a Young Girl

John William Waterhouse

Red chalk on paper

15 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches

Signed lower left.

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Comentary by Rupert Maas

Most of Waterhouse's preparatory work for specific paintings was in oils. Some of his slighter drawings were sketchy ideas for composition, very much working drawings, but his drawings of girls' heads are more generic, and seem only to relate indirectly to finished works. These were often brought to a high degree of finish for display, and were sometimes signed.

Much has been speculated about the identity of Waterhouse's models, even that the models were only one model, a lover whose identity has been kept secret. The hint of a secret Victorian passion seems a neat fit for the romantic wistfulness of Waterhouse's pictures, but the truth is likely to be that he chose his models as subjects of his romantic vision, not that the models themselves were the object of it, and that is why his beautiful yearning girls conform to a type. A very similar drawing was illustrated in The Studio Magazine, vol. 44, September 1908, p. 249.

References

Maas, Rupert. British Pictures. London: The Maas Gallery. 2006. Catalogue number 30.

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Last modified 11 August 2006