Head of Buddha

Object Details

• School/Tradition

  Gandhara school

• Label

  This head of the Buddha, once framed by a halo and joined to a complete figure, would have been worshipped in a monastic shrine. The facial features and wavy hair show the Greek and Roman influences that arose through trade contacts with ancient Gandhara, an area now divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

• Provenance

  1964-1989

  Alan D. Wolfe (1928-2003) and Ann K. Wolfe (née Dupree), purchased from an unidentified source [ 1]

  From 1989

  National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Alan D. Wolfe and Ann K. Wolfe [2]

  Notes:

  [1] See Alan D. and Ann K. Wolfe, IRS form 8283, columns labeled “d. Date acquired by donor” and “e. How acquired by donor,” copy in object file. The form indicates that Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe purchased this object in December 1964.

  See also offer letter from Alan D. Wolfe to the Director, dated December 22, 1985, copy in object file. Wolfe states that the object had been in his possession and in the United States since his “return from an overseas assignment [as a Foreign Service Officer] in 1965.”

  See also “Custody Receipt,” dated December 18, 1989, copy in object file. The object was transferred from Alan Wolfe to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery for acquisition consideration on December 18, 1989.

  Alan D. Wolfe (1928-2003) was a Foreign Service Officer for the US Department of State. Born in New York, NY, Wolfe attended Columbia University. Wolfe entered the Foreign Service in 1951 and he served at least in embassies in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan (1951-1954); Amman, Jordan (1956); Baghdad, Iraq (1957-1959); Kabul, Afghanistan (1962-1963); and Rawalpindi, Pakistan (1969-1972). In 1965, he married Ann K. Dupree in New York. Works from the Wolfes collection may also be found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fralin Museum at the University of Virginia, and the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

  [2] See “Acquisition Consideration Form,” approved on January 25, 1990, copy in object file. See also the signed “Deed of Gift to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution,” dated February 13, 1990, copy in object file. From 1989-2023, the object was part of the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection and on March 21, 2023, the work was internally transferred to the National Museum of Asian Art Collection.

  Research updated May 9, 2024

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia (October 14, 2017 to February 6, 2022)

  Object of the Bi-Month (April 25, 1991 to March 21, 2007)

  Sculpture of South Asia and the Himalayas (May 4, 1988 to July 9, 2017)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mr. and Mrs. Alan D. (1928-2003) and Ann K. Wolfe

• Origin

  Pakistan or Afghanistan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Ann and Alan Wolfe

• Type

  Sculpture

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  200s, 300s

• Name

  Wolfe, Alan Ann D., buddha

• Place

  Afghanistan, Pakistan

• Topic

  South Asian and Himalayan Art, Art, Schist, Kushan dynasty (1st century BCE - 299 CE), Stone, Ushnisha

• Culture

  Buddhists, Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Sculpture