Portrait of Erastus Dow Palmer's 1862 "Head of a Lady", High Museum, 2015
I have already written of Palmer's "Resignation", also at the High, at this link, and given a little of his history and approach to art.
Capturing this bust was difficult due the lighting which cast multiple shadows, but there are still aspects of the sculpture I felt I was able to emphasize that breathe some of that marble to life. If you take a look at the High Museum's photo archive of this sculpture, it doesn't appear very promising. But then when you close in and examine her, she has a distinctive expression and features that make her stand out from many other neo-classical sculptures of the era. Her angles are different, her nose, her mouth. Palmer, in keeping with what he says about his aesthetic, may have idealized the model's face, but it is an idealization of that which makes her face distinctive.
One should note the woman's eyes, that the edge of the eyelid is obviously thickened. This was a technique of Palmer's to compensate for the inability to sculpt in marble the frame for the eyes that are one's eyelashes.
View the High Museum photo archive of Head of a Lady.
My other photos of Dow's "Head of a Lady" are here, here, and here
The bust at the High was a gift of the West Foundation in honor of Gudmund Vigtel, director of the High Museum from 1963 thru 1991, and Michael E. Shapiro, director at the High Museum from 2000 to 2015.
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