Head of a Woman, c. 1859/1860

Not on View

Medium

granite

Dimensions

overall without base: 48.26 × 23.02 × 23.81 cm (19 × 9 1/16 × 9 3/8 in.)
base (height x largest diameter): 13.97 × 20.32 cm (5 1/2 × 8 in.)
weight with base: 90 lbs (40.824 kg)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mrs. H. Simonds)

Accession Number

2015.19.3628

Artists / Makers

William Rimmer (sculptor) American, born England, 1816 - 1879

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Probably inherited from the artist by his daughter, Caroline Hunt Rimmer [1851-1918], Boston; her niece, executor of her will, and the artist's granddaughter, Edith Rimmer Durham Simonds [1877-1935, Mrs. Henry Simonds], Lexington, Massachusetts;[1] gift 1920 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] Caroline Rimmer's will, dated 10 February 1917, article X, left the sculpture to the "National Art Gallery at Washington, D.C.," the "Smithsonian Institute[sic]," but the bequest was refused in 1919. (This "National Art Gallery" was the original National Gallery of Art, housed first within the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and now the Smithsonian American Art Museum.) See: William Rimmer: A Yankee Michelangelo," exh. cat., Brockton Art Museum, Massachusetts; Cleveland Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Hanover, New Hampshire, 1985: no. 4.

Associated Names

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Rimmer, Caroline Hunt
Simonds, Edith Rimmer Durham

Exhibition History

1916: Loan for display with permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1916-1920.

1949: 19th and 20th Century Sculpture, Watkins Gallery of American University, Washington, 13 November - 20 December 1949, no catalogue.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 15 April - 30 September 1966, unpublished checklist.

1970: American Sculpture, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 11 September - 15 November 1970, no. 132, repro.

1985: William Rimmer: A Yankee Michelangelo, Brockton Art Museum, Massachusetts; Cleveland Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum of Art, 22 September 1985 - 26 July 1986, no. 4, repro.

Bibliography

1882: Bartlett, Truman H. The Art Life of William Rimmer: Sculptor, Painter, and Physician. Boston, 1882: 27, pl. 6..

1949: Seymour, Charles Jr. Tradition and Experiment in Modern Sculpture. Washington, 1949: 40, 42.

1984: Craven, Wayne. Sculpture in America. Newark and New York, 1984: 352, 367.

2022: Evans, Dorinda. William Rimmer: Champion of Imagination in American Art. Cambridge, 2022: 120, 121 figs. 86-87, 123, 152 nn. 14, 16 (identified as Saint Cecilia).