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

Mother and Child 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:

This Mother and Child Figure is attributed to the Yombe peoples, who inhabit a large territory now divided among the nations of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and Angola. Its origin has been traced to the areas surrounding the village of a master carver in the western Democratic Republic of Congo, where similarly carved objects were collected in the early 20th century. Its naturalism suggests that it could have been the portrait of a real person, and thus an excellent testimonial to the immense talent of the artist who carved it. Once referred to as the “Burniaux maternity figure,” after the Belgian collector F. Burniaux, who owned it from about 1930 to 1980, the sculpture was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1998.

Object facts

• Title: Mother and Child Figure
• Date: late 1800s–early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (most likely), Cabinda, or Republic of the Congo, probably Yombe-style maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood and paint
• Dimensions: Overall: 64.7 cm (25 1/2 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1997.149

A detail from the museum

The sculpture may have been carved in honor of a woman after her death, or after the death of a male chief. Kongo society is matrilineal, so the chief's right to political power is inherited through the female line.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Duponcheel, Christian. Masterpieces of the People's Republic of the Congo, exh. cat. New York: African American Institute, 1980, p. 21, no. 10, with comments on pages 7 and 50.
• Bassani, Ezio. "Due grandi artisti Yombe: Il 'Maestro della maternità Roselli-Lorenzini' e il 'Maestro della maternità de Briey.' " Critica d'Arte 56, no. 178 (1981): 66-84, fig.24.
• Cole, Herbert M. The Mother and Child in African Sculpture, exh. cat. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985 (Ethnic Arts Series 4), cover and cat. 15.

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.