A philosopher of mathematics, the human consciousness and language, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was described by his teacher Bertrand Russell as “the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived”.
Born into one of Austria’s wealthiest families, Wittgenstein came to England to study in 1908. He arrived in Cambridge in 1911, where he would spend much of his later career.
It was during a period back in Austria, that he produced a small and simple bust known as Head of a Girl. Dating from 1925-28, it was made at a time when Wittgenstein was helping design a new townhouse in Vienna’s Kundmanngasse with his sister Margaret (the property is now known as Haus Wittgenstein).