Constantin Brancusi's Sleeping Muse—a detached head lying on its cheek—entered new ground in the representation of a conceptual image. The head is so refined and reduced in its perfect. unblemished shape that only the concept of the original is present. His work from this period set a standard for all succeeding modern sculpture that desired "truth to materials;" the stone's form is closely connected with the form required by the subject itself. Brancusi was one of the most important artists in Paris during the early stages of modern art. His stye was not just a matter of personal temperament, but deeply rooted in traditional art, put to new uses and purposes.

Adapted from

DMA unpublished material.

• Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
  Check out this photograph by Man Ray that may have been influenced by Brancusi's The Sleeping Muse.

• Boca Raton Museum of Art
  View this work by Roy Lichtenstein that may have been influenced by Brancusi's The Sleeping Muse.

• University of Michigan Library
  Check out this marble sculpture by Brancusi that depicts a more realistic sleeping head.

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