IVORY COAST Baoule statue, Didiévi region Baoule female figure standing on a ringed circular base. The bent legs are curvaceous but not exaggerated, the digitate feet forming two slight reliefs. The long, stretched body is marked by pointed breasts, attached to short, right-angled shoulders. The flattened arms extend into particularly long hands, both framing and pointing to the umbilicus of the lineage, the bend of the elbow singularly high. The coffee-bean gaze seems half-closed, the wide nose above a small, thin, stretched mouth, drawing a pinched pout in profile. Belly, back and face are adorned with scarification marks of identical vocabulary. The hair, particularly meticulous, is treated in fine strands gathered into a shell above the forehead, then knotted into a heavy braid, this distribution repeated at the back of the head. Wood with oozing black patina, glass beads, cowries H. 45.5 cm. A Galerie Carrefour document dated March 21, 1966, is attached. A short beaded link, probably brought back. Oozing patina. Crack at base. Attached to base. Expert : Emmanuelle MENUET This work is to be compared with the productions of the workshops surrounding the Master of Essankro, a village in the Didiévi region. According to Susan Vogel, all the pieces in this corpus were produced by artists of the same generation who influenced each other, rather than by successive generations of masters and apprentices. (...) This unique style was that of a close circle of mutually influential artists active between around 1820 and 1900 (In. Les maîtres de la sculpture de Côte d'Ivoire, pages 88-91, Bernard de Grunne).