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Lot Essay
An Ideal MAn: A Work by the Essankro Master
This superb figure belongs to an ensemble of Baule statues that can be attributed to a group of artists active in the central Baule area from the mid to the late nineteenth century. While Susan Vogel (Known Artists but Anonymous Works, African Arts, Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring 1999, p. 51) originally referred to them as the "Nzipri Circle" of artists, Bernard de Grunne (Mains de maîtres, Brussels, 2001, pp. 67-79) suggested the name "Masters of Sakassou", referring to a village where such a sculpture was discovered. Both share the view that the set of known statues was the work of a workshop of several contemporaries who lived in the nineteenth century and who influenced each other. In 2015's Les Maîtres de la sculpture de Côte d'Ivoire, Bernard de Grunne finally proposed the name of “The master of Essankro and his workshop” based on new information obtained in situ by Susan Vogel (op. cit., pp. 88-91).
Figures in this style are "characterized by a long, supple line, the body having a soft, rounded belly, the face concave and heart-shaped with large round eyes. The idiosyncratic treatment of the lower leg is an easily recognized trait: the ankle is usually behind the center of gravity, well behind the knee, and the ankles are small, pulled close together, giving the figure tension and a sort of lift off the high, tight, deeply ribbed base" (Vogel, op. cit., p. 51). Bernard de Grunne considers this style to be one of the most accomplished achievements of Baule art.
The most known works in the Essankro style are the superb pair of figures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (#1978.412.390-.391) and the bearded male figure exhibited at the Museum of Modem Art in 1935 (Sweeney, J., African Negro Art, New York, 1935, #69). As discussed, the corpus of known figures in the Essankro style is too varied and too numerous to assert that they are all from a single hand. Nonetheless, an individual masterhand within this workshop can be identified on the basis of a small set of iconographic details: half-closed oval eyes, a keloid scarification in the middle of the forehead, fleshy rounded nostrils, a big oval mouth and the elongated fingers and thumb. At least three male statues (Sotheby's, London, 30 April 1982, lot 186; Sotheby's, New York, 16 November 2001, lot 48; and one published in Africa; la figura imaginada, Fundacion "la Caixa", 2004, #47) share these traits with the present statue. For another similar male statue, paired with a female figure, see de Grunne, Bernard, L'Art Africain dialogue avec Francis Picabia, Belgium, 2009 (leaflet).
This superb statue was once owned by a Baule diviner. Sculptures were often an important presence in their divining sessions, during which they were consulted by clients with a myriad of problems, often relating to childbearing or other health concerns. The presence of such a carving, called asie usu, enhanced their prestige. An asie usu spirit would have dictated its carving preferences for the statue through dreams of the diviner, the carver or the client; it would specify the wood, shape, gender, and personality of the figure, and whether it wanted to be standing or sitting. Such figures needed to be beautiful to entice the spirit that they were deemed to attract. Therefore, they embody Baule ideals of civilized beauty, with their elegant and refined coiffures, elaborate scarifications patterns on face and torso – two markers of civilization. The smooth skin, long neck, elongated torso, muscular calves and buttocks were other Baule beauty ideals. All these features, rendered in perfection in the present statue, culminate in this depiction of the perfect Baule man.
This superb figure belongs to an ensemble of Baule statues that can be attributed to a group of artists active in the central Baule area from the mid to the late nineteenth century. While Susan Vogel (Known Artists but Anonymous Works, African Arts, Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring 1999, p. 51) originally referred to them as the "Nzipri Circle" of artists, Bernard de Grunne (Mains de maîtres, Brussels, 2001, pp. 67-79) suggested the name "Masters of Sakassou", referring to a village where such a sculpture was discovered. Both share the view that the set of known statues was the work of a workshop of several contemporaries who lived in the nineteenth century and who influenced each other. In 2015's Les Maîtres de la sculpture de Côte d'Ivoire, Bernard de Grunne finally proposed the name of “The master of Essankro and his workshop” based on new information obtained in situ by Susan Vogel (op. cit., pp. 88-91).
Figures in this style are "characterized by a long, supple line, the body having a soft, rounded belly, the face concave and heart-shaped with large round eyes. The idiosyncratic treatment of the lower leg is an easily recognized trait: the ankle is usually behind the center of gravity, well behind the knee, and the ankles are small, pulled close together, giving the figure tension and a sort of lift off the high, tight, deeply ribbed base" (Vogel, op. cit., p. 51). Bernard de Grunne considers this style to be one of the most accomplished achievements of Baule art.
The most known works in the Essankro style are the superb pair of figures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (#1978.412.390-.391) and the bearded male figure exhibited at the Museum of Modem Art in 1935 (Sweeney, J., African Negro Art, New York, 1935, #69). As discussed, the corpus of known figures in the Essankro style is too varied and too numerous to assert that they are all from a single hand. Nonetheless, an individual masterhand within this workshop can be identified on the basis of a small set of iconographic details: half-closed oval eyes, a keloid scarification in the middle of the forehead, fleshy rounded nostrils, a big oval mouth and the elongated fingers and thumb. At least three male statues (Sotheby's, London, 30 April 1982, lot 186; Sotheby's, New York, 16 November 2001, lot 48; and one published in Africa; la figura imaginada, Fundacion "la Caixa", 2004, #47) share these traits with the present statue. For another similar male statue, paired with a female figure, see de Grunne, Bernard, L'Art Africain dialogue avec Francis Picabia, Belgium, 2009 (leaflet).
This superb statue was once owned by a Baule diviner. Sculptures were often an important presence in their divining sessions, during which they were consulted by clients with a myriad of problems, often relating to childbearing or other health concerns. The presence of such a carving, called asie usu, enhanced their prestige. An asie usu spirit would have dictated its carving preferences for the statue through dreams of the diviner, the carver or the client; it would specify the wood, shape, gender, and personality of the figure, and whether it wanted to be standing or sitting. Such figures needed to be beautiful to entice the spirit that they were deemed to attract. Therefore, they embody Baule ideals of civilized beauty, with their elegant and refined coiffures, elaborate scarifications patterns on face and torso – two markers of civilization. The smooth skin, long neck, elongated torso, muscular calves and buttocks were other Baule beauty ideals. All these features, rendered in perfection in the present statue, culminate in this depiction of the perfect Baule man.