Artwork Details
- Title
- Head of Gertrude Lawrence
- Artist
- Date
- 1931
- Location
- Dimensions
- 9 x 4 1⁄2 x 4 1⁄8 in. (22.9 x 11.5 x 10.5 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Mediums Description
- ceramic and shell
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Performing arts — theater — performer
- Portrait female — Lawrence, Gertrude — head
- Figure female — fragment — face
- Object — other — shell
- Object Number
- 1983.72
Artwork Description
José de Creeft frequently traveled to the island of Mallorca, off the coast of Spain. On one of his trips, he met the actress Gertrude Lawrence and carved two portraits of her. This small sculpture combines part of Lawrence's face with two shells found on one of the island's beaches. Shells are often used to symbolize femininity, and de Creeft may have been suggesting that Lawrence had a beauty and immortality similar to the goddess Venus, who in classical myth was born of the sea.