Salome - No Head
1910 · unknown
Salome - No Head is a 1910 portrait by the Russian artist Victor Stember.
In 1910, Victor Stember painted a large painting of Salome from the Bible with the head of John the Baptist on a platter. This was painted in St. Petersburg and remained unsold until a buyer fell in love with Salome, but not the severed head. He asked Stember to paint the severed head out of the painting and he would buy it, which he did. Stember instead made the platter into a mirror in which Salome can admire herself.
Both paintings can be viewed in photographs taken by the family. ( #19 and partially in #3) See the next painting in this gallery, #65 for the severed head painting.
Archival Records of This Work
This Work Appears In
- Studio photograph 19 — 1915: Petrograd: Chernyshev Alley. The artist Stember with upper left painting of Salome,
- Studio photograph 20 — 1909. This is the first studio Stember had in St. Petersburg and was on Galernaya Street.
- Studio photograph 23 — 1914: Petrograd: The war with Germany was the reason to change the German sounding name 'S
- Studio photograph 3 — Stember in his last studio in Petrograd on #14 Chernyshev Pereoulok (14 Chernyshev Alley)
Do you have information about this portrait — its location, provenance, or a better photograph? Please contact the family.