Baule Couple, Côte d'Ivoire

Baule Couple, Côte d'Ivoire
height of each 13 5/8in (34.5cm)

Provenance
George Keller Collection, New York, Davos and Paris (Inv. G.F.K. 141)
Paolo Morigi Collection, Lugano
Sotheby's, Paris, 6 June 2005, Lot 91
Graham Beck Collection, South Africa
Thence by descent

Each figure standing on a base with enlarged feet and toes; well-defined calves with nobs at the knees, each resting the arms at the waist, sloping shoulders supporting elongated necks and extended facial planes with large, almond-shaped eyes and squared, pursed lips and each wearing striated coiffures, the male's ending with an upper and lower projection in back; each with raised scarifications to the body, the male with additional scarification accentuating the face; the male wears a fiber cordage around the waist, the female with a white beaded necklace; each with dark-brown, heavily encrusted patina.