Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (French, 1891-1915)Religious Head
inscribed 'Z M/v/P K' (on the reverse)
bronze with a dark brown patina
12.5cm (4 15/16in) high
Conceived in 1912 and cast in 1965, the present work is from the edition of 12注脚Provenance
Acquired by the family of the present owner circa the 1980s, and thence by descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
Orléans, Musée des Beaux Arts, Henri Gaudier, sculpteur orléanais, 17 March-22 April 1956, cat.no.3 (another cast)

Literature
H. S. Ede, A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska, William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1930, p.205 (another cast)
Roger Cole, Burning to Speak: The Life and Art of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Phaidon, Oxford, 1978, cat.no.23, (ill. p.72, another cast)
Evelyn Silber, Gaudier-Brzeska, Life and Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996, cat.no.20, (ill.b&w pl.16, another cast)

We are grateful to Dr Roger Cole, whose forthcoming publication No Stone Unturned: The Life and Work of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska will be published this year with a newly revised catalogue raisonné, for his assistance in cataloguing this lot and lot 14.

The initials inscribed on the reverse are thought to refer to the short-lived but intense friendship between Gaudier (P[ik]) and Sophie (Z[osienka]) with Middleton Murry (M) and Katherine Mansfield (K), which flourished over the summer of 1912 but came to an end in September of the same year.