This is probably one of the most beautiful and oldest Baule pairs that we have collected over the past 20 years. A man and a woman with a child in their arms sit on typical Baule chairs. The feet are flattened, the bent legs relatively short, the elongated torsos are scarified and covered with an intense sacrificial patina. The male figure touches a two-part goatee in the left hand and an egg in the right. A columnar neck supports oval heads with fine facial features. The asymmetrical hairstyles, which only find their expression in a few Baule figures, are remarkable. The touch patina clearly shows how the figures experienced their cultic use. The knees, arms, the female breasts, nose and eyes are those places that have repeatedly received that abrasion through contact over decades, which only appears in very old figures that were in cultic use for a long time. The extraordinary size of this couple and the high artistic skill of the carver indicate a royal owner of this extraordinary Baule couple.

Lit. Susan M. Vogel, African Art Western Eyes, in relation to a wellknown Baule face mask with an assymetric hairdress, page 143, "the artist loves to play with assymetry, the woman´s amazing coiffure a actual hairdo with a bun on one side, and terssed rows on the other.; Bernard de Grunne: Über den Baule-Stil und seine Meister. In: Eberhard Fischer/Lorenz Homberger: Afrikanische Meister. Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zurüch 2014, p. 81-106; Alain-Michel Boyer: Baule. Visions of Africa, Milan 2008.

24.000 - 28.000,- Euro

Height: 92 / 94 cm
Weight: 4,6 / 6,1 kg