Portrait of a Woman

In 1903 Umberto Boccioni was in his early twenties, living in Rome and learning above all from Giacomo Balla, an older painter who taught him and his friend Gino Severini the divisionist way of building colour out of separate strokes. This pastel comes out of those years. It is one of only three works known from 1903, and the gallery's catalogue entry notes how close its handling is to Balla's at that moment, especially in the green ground around the figure, scratched in fine strokes that run downward from right to left. The woman is seen at bust length, turned three-quarters, her pale dress picked out with touches of red, blue and light yellow. Boccioni struggled with her. His corrections are still visible, above all where he worked and reworked the volume of the head.