NEW KINGDOM, EARLY TO MID-18TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1550-1390 B.C.

Sporting a short wig with undulating strands ending in corkscrew curls at the forehead and behind the shoulders, this head of an official may well derive from a seated or block statue. His intelligent face bears the hallmarks of portraiture of earlier Dynasty 18, resembling in particular early portraits of Senenmut, the influential high official responsible for construction projects during the reign of Hatshepsut (compare especially the seated statue of him holding Princess Neferure, no. 44 in E.R. Russmann, ed., Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Egyptian Art from the British Museum). Some twenty-five portraits of Senenmut are known, many in highly polished black granite, with similarly arched eyebrows, eyes with elongated canthi, a pronounced philtrum, and a slight smile with drilled corners. Large ears are also typical of official portraiture of the period of Hatshepsut’s reign, hearkening back to Middle Kingdom models. On the statuary of Senenmut, see C. Keller in C. Roehrig, ed., Hatshepsut: Queen to Pharaoh, pp. 117-131.

The head is mounted on an antique alabaster base with painted descriptive text. Similar mounts were fashioned for Egyptian works for various UK collections, public and private, including that of Lady Meux, whose collection was published in 1896. It is likely that the workshop that created these bases was associated with the British Museum during the late 19th and early 20th century.