Female Figure

19th century

African Art

On view, 1st floor, African Art

Depicted in a highly abstract style, this standing female figure holds a stick with both hands, her helmetlike hairstyle accented by brass attachments. A diminutive figure is mounted on the woman’s back, framed by her jutting shoulders and buttocks. Although the relationship between the two suggests a mother carrying her child, the small figure appears to be fully grown. The sculpture may thus be understood as a celebration of women as the essential progenitors of society.

Medium

Wood and brass

Dimensions

26 3/16 × 6 1/8 × 6 5/16 in. (66.5 × 15.5 × 16 cm)

Credit Line

Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection

Accession Number

2006.51.222

Geography

Mali

Culture

Dogon

Period

19th century

Classification

Sculpture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Possibly Living Trust, Beverly Hills, California. Possibly Reynold C. Kerr, New York. Possibly J. J. Klejman, New York, July 9, 1980. Charles B. Benenson Collection, Greenwich, Conn;Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Frederick John Lamp, Amanda Maples, and Laura M. Smalligan, Accumulating Histories: African Art from the Charles B. Benenson Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2012), 183, ill
  • Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 182, pl. 164
  • "Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 222, 224, ill
  • Richard Barnes, "Objects of Desire," Yale Alumni Magazine (September/October 2004), 38, ill
  • Bruce Museum, Three African Traditional: the Art of the Dogon, Fang and Songye, exh. cat. (Greenwich, CT: Bruce Museum, 1999), 10, fig. 8
  • Susan Vogel, Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts, and Chris Muller, Exhibition-ism: Museums and African Art, exh. cat. (New York: Museum for African Art, 1994–95), 118, fig. 14
  • Susan Vogel and Jerry L. Thompson, Closeup: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African Sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Museum for African Art, 1990), 130-131, fig. 56
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

figures (representations)

Subject

women

Technical metadata and APIs

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