Female Figure (late 1800s–early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Female Figure (late 1800s–early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

An artistic melting pot, the Bondoukou region in northeastern Côte d’Ivoire near the border with Ghana is inhabited by several ethnic groups whose cultures and artistic styles often intermingle. This figure’s rounded shapes and delicate surface decoration––which seem to imitate body scarifications––closely resemble the style of Baule carvings. The figure’s meaning and function remain a mystery.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figure
• Date: late 1800s–early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Bondoukou region, unknown maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood, paint, glass beads, and natural fiber
• Dimensions: Overall: 54.1 x 7.8 x 7.5 cm (21 5/16 x 3 1/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1972.343

A detail from the museum

Artworks from different regions traveled across Africa; while found in Wenchi, Ghana, this figure was made in nearby Côte d'Ivoire.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fagg, William. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, no. 91.
• “New Acquisitions.” African Arts 6, no. 4 (Summer 1973), p. 84-85.
• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1972.” The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (March 1973): 63-115.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.