Head of a Girl, 1948-49
Charcoal on paper
56 x 46cm
The Gustav Metzger Foundation
This striking portrait was probably completed either in Antwerp or – following Metzger’s return to London, later in 1949 – at David Bomberg’s revolutionary evening life-drawing classes in which students were encouraged to focus on the energy and vitality of their subject matter and utilise their own agency as liberated artists – his mantra being to 'Throw yourself in!' It was among the hoard of early works that he recovered from a relative’s north London attic in 2010 and was included in the first public exhibition of these works at Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany in 2012.
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