■ STATUE URHOBO
■ STATUE URHOBO
AN URHOBO FIGURE
NIGERIA
Height: 187 cm. (73⅝ in.)
US$650,000-970,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired in situ by Philippe Guimiot, in 1972
Philippe Guimiot, Brussels
Collection Roger Vanthournout (1926-2005), Belgium, acquired from the latter
Sotheby's, Paris, Collections Andrea Portago, Roger Vanthournout, Helmut Zake and various enthusiasts, 23 June 2006, lot 95
Important European private collection, acquired at this sale
This Urhobo statue is distinguished by its exceptional monumentality, exalted as much by its imposing and authoritative stature as by its sculptural quality. It represents the span of a founding ancestor and a triumphant warrior. These feminine or masculine fgures materialized important ancestors. The Urhobo honoured them, venerated them and placed them within the sanctuaries. The ancestors were considered
omnipotent and capable of protecting the entire community from evil spirits and troublemakers. Each Urhobo community held a series of elaborate ceremonies each year to recreate the battles fought by the clan founders. Parts of these
ceremonies took place before the eyes of these majestic statues installed in the sanctuaries and prepared for the occasion; they were painted with red, black, yellow and white pigments - white chalk referring to ancestral domain and spiritual purity.
These statues reflect a contradiction inherent in much Urhobo art, considered both compelling and fearsome (for the common man) and Olympian (for the world of the ancestors).
This monumental statue presents a man sculpted in a hieratic position: seated, his body straight, arms free from the body, shoulders
thrown back and powerful torso stretched forward intensified by the arch of his back. The strength induced by the gait and the musculature is accentuated by the haughty head carriage, which underlines the angular facial features characteristic of Urhobo statuary. To these is added the stretched face dominated by a broad forehead decorated with classical scarifications, the prognathic chin, eyes and mouth projected forward, open to cut teeth that accentuate the aggressiveness of the warrior's expression. The man, represented in the simplest apparatus, is adorned with numerous ornaments (a three-row
necklace encircling the shoulders, large anklets and bracelets, armbands and a ring). The richness of these body ornaments, insignia of authority and prestige, make it possible to identify the individual depicted as a high-ranking personality. In fact, the Urhobo were renowned for their imposing jewellery carved from elephant ivory, which is considered to be the most prestigious material. This warrior was also armed with protective objects. A medicine gourd hangs from his neck, intended to repel physical and psychological aggression and to ensure military prowess and victories.
The Urhobo live on the western edge of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria. Until the 1960s, Urhobo culture was little known in the Western world because of the vast expanses of mangrove swamps and heavy rainfall that made access to the region difficult. For these reasons, the majority of sanctuary carvings were discovered and revealed from the 1970s onwards. The work presented here was collected by Philippe Guimiot in addition
to other Urhobo pieces of comparable style and quality, including the female statue from the Baudoin de Grunne collection (Sotheby's,
New York, 19 May 2000, lot 16) and the maternity ward of the Barbier-Mueller Museum collection, now in the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac (inv. no. A.96.1.102). According to Perkins Foss, Urhobo art specialist, these three works most probably come from the same workshop. In 1969, Perkins Foss documented a sanctuary located in Ogherehe (or Eherhe), a village in the Agbarho region, with a couple of statues, those of a warrior and his wife, sculpted in a very comparable style (see photograph in "Reunited: Two Urhobo Sanctuary Sculptures", Tribal Art Magazine, no. 73, autumn 2014, p. 132, no. 4). Our copy was collected in the same geographical area.
Two other fgures, by the same artist, are now kept in American museums: the first, in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (inv. no. 86-7) and the second in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (inv. no. 2010.66). Both were carved by the same artist in the mid-19th century and would probably come from the same sanctuary. The style of this prodigious artist is characterized by the precise treatment of the head, the protruding forehead, the concave cheeks and a belligerent mouth open to a jaw projected into space. The arched back is a singular and important characteristic of this master carver.
FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
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■ STATUE URHOBO
AN URHOBO FIGURE
NIGERIA
Height: 187 cm. (73⅝ in.)
US$650,000-970,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired in situ by Philippe Guimiot, in 1972
Philippe Guimiot, Brussels
Collection Roger Vanthournout (1926-2005), Belgium, acquired from the latter
Sotheby's, Paris, Collections Andrea Portago, Roger Vanthournout, Helmut Zake and various enthusiasts, 23 June 2006, lot 95
Important European private collection, acquired at this sale
This Urhobo statue is distinguished by its exceptional monumentality, exalted as much by its imposing and authoritative stature as by its sculptural quality. It represents the span of a founding ancestor and a triumphant warrior. These feminine or masculine fgures materialized important ancestors. The Urhobo honoured them, venerated them and placed them within the sanctuaries. The ancestors were considered
omnipotent and capable of protecting the entire community from evil spirits and troublemakers. Each Urhobo community held a series of elaborate ceremonies each year to recreate the battles fought by the clan founders. Parts of these
ceremonies took place before the eyes of these majestic statues installed in the sanctuaries and prepared for the occasion; they were painted with red, black, yellow and white pigments - white chalk referring to ancestral domain and spiritual purity.
These statues reflect a contradiction inherent in much Urhobo art, considered both compelling and fearsome (for the common man) and Olympian (for the world of the ancestors).
This monumental statue presents a man sculpted in a hieratic position: seated, his body straight, arms free from the body, shoulders
thrown back and powerful torso stretched forward intensified by the arch of his back. The strength induced by the gait and the musculature is accentuated by the haughty head carriage, which underlines the angular facial features characteristic of Urhobo statuary. To these is added the stretched face dominated by a broad forehead decorated with classical scarifications, the prognathic chin, eyes and mouth projected forward, open to cut teeth that accentuate the aggressiveness of the warrior's expression. The man, represented in the simplest apparatus, is adorned with numerous ornaments (a three-row
necklace encircling the shoulders, large anklets and bracelets, armbands and a ring). The richness of these body ornaments, insignia of authority and prestige, make it possible to identify the individual depicted as a high-ranking personality. In fact, the Urhobo were renowned for their imposing jewellery carved from elephant ivory, which is considered to be the most prestigious material. This warrior was also armed with protective objects. A medicine gourd hangs from his neck, intended to repel physical and psychological aggression and to ensure military prowess and victories.
The Urhobo live on the western edge of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria. Until the 1960s, Urhobo culture was little known in the Western world because of the vast expanses of mangrove swamps and heavy rainfall that made access to the region difficult. For these reasons, the majority of sanctuary carvings were discovered and revealed from the 1970s onwards. The work presented here was collected by Philippe Guimiot in addition
to other Urhobo pieces of comparable style and quality, including the female statue from the Baudoin de Grunne collection (Sotheby's,
New York, 19 May 2000, lot 16) and the maternity ward of the Barbier-Mueller Museum collection, now in the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac (inv. no. A.96.1.102). According to Perkins Foss, Urhobo art specialist, these three works most probably come from the same workshop. In 1969, Perkins Foss documented a sanctuary located in Ogherehe (or Eherhe), a village in the Agbarho region, with a couple of statues, those of a warrior and his wife, sculpted in a very comparable style (see photograph in "Reunited: Two Urhobo Sanctuary Sculptures", Tribal Art Magazine, no. 73, autumn 2014, p. 132, no. 4). Our copy was collected in the same geographical area.
Two other fgures, by the same artist, are now kept in American museums: the first, in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (inv. no. 86-7) and the second in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (inv. no. 2010.66). Both were carved by the same artist in the mid-19th century and would probably come from the same sanctuary. The style of this prodigious artist is characterized by the precise treatment of the head, the protruding forehead, the concave cheeks and a belligerent mouth open to a jaw projected into space. The arched back is a singular and important characteristic of this master carver.
FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
To bid, please visit the "Sales Information" section. Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
