Head of a Man

Drawing was fundamental to the artistic practice of Oskar Kokoschka, whose work was expressionist in its tendency to communicate internal emotional states rather than outward appearances. Some 5, 000 drawings by the artist survive. Colored chalk was a favorite medium, and he deployed it in nervous lines. This drawing harks back to a self-portrait that he made in the early 1920s, which he called Self-portrait from Two Views. He traveled extensively in his later career and gave many of his sketches to the friends he made along the way. As the inscription shows, this study was given to Minneapolis author and philanthropist Rosalynd C. Pflaum (1917–2014), whom the artist met on one of at least three visits he made to Minnesota.