Two Studies of Heads

Two heads on a pale ground, both carrying the Wiederseim signature. Above, a girl with dark upswept hair and a bare shoulder looks out with a level, unbothered gaze. Below, tilted as if clipped and dropped onto the page, a woman in an enormous plumed hat and a soft bow at the throat glances up and away. These are the staples of the illustrated press: pretty, saleable faces for a magazine's inside pages or a calendar back. The drawing is economical — a few strokes for the hair, a wash of rose in the cheeks and the feathers. It is easy to forget that the woman who drew the round, rubbery Campbell Kids spent years turning out polished commercial portraiture like this, because almost none of it was signed loudly enough to survive under her name.