Sepik Female Figure | Guy Loudmer, Hotel Drouot
Dream Piece #11
Sepik Female Figure
Guy Loudmer, Hotel Drouot
27 June 1985, lot 20
Scale is a curious quality in Oceanic art. On the one hand, an object significantly larger than most of its type can be something positive and noteworthy. At the same time when an object is markedly smaller than what is expected that too can make it that much more desirable. This ancient Middle Sepik River figure is a case in point. I was first attracted to its obviously early, almost pre-classic composition and expression and only later learned the figure is a mere 10 ½” (27 cm) in height. That is a lot of sculpture packed into a small frame.
The head is enormous, as one expects in an early piece. It juts forward and the chin is way down to the chest. The eyes are bold and mesmerizing under a sloping forehead. The nose is gracefully raised with prominent pierced nostrils. The remains of white and red pigments remind us the vibrancy the figure once had. Now it is the shoulders I find most striking as they extend well up almost to the ears and are thrust backwards. The hands hang down to below the knees of this powerful female spirit.
You can see by the light wood showing under the pigments and the gentle flow of the volumes this sculpture was carved from the super light balsawood that gives the artist wonderful latitude in creating shape and contour.
The provenance on the figure is early and excellent. It was originally sold at Sotheby’s London on 30 April 1930, lot 29 and subsequently into the collection of Charles Ratton (see biography in PROVENANCE section) and then Louis Carré. The latter being an important early dealer of Modern art in Paris. In 1985 the figure sold for a fairly substantial 200,000 French francs, which today would be around $84,000—so whoever purchased this piece knew it was extraordinary and was prepared to pay for it. I congratulate their taste.
Charles Ratton with Glele Figure circa 1980
Louis Carré
