In 1910 the sculptor Malvina Hoffman saw the famed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova perform in London, aprofound experience that ultimately led to their close friendship. Hoffman spent years capturing the exquisitegrace of Pavlova’s movement in different sculptures and reliefs, yet in Head of Pavlova she created a restrained, almost melancholic portrait of the dancer wearing an elaborate Russian headdress, her eyes nearly closed. Hoffman explained that in her portraits of Pavlova, her friend appears as a “rather sad, thoughtful person, far removed from the vivacious and exciting fairy that Pavlova represents over the footlights.”