Anonymous artist
Tsogho Head
Wood
Origin: Gabon
Origin: Gabon
height 27 cm
height 10 5/8 in
height 10 5/8 in
Photo: Valentin Clavairolles
Further images
This intriguing Tsogho head from Gabon was collected by Olga Wieber between 1929 and 1931 and brought back to Switzerland in 1932. Wieber was a nurse who shortly worked in...
This intriguing Tsogho head from Gabon was collected by Olga Wieber between 1929 and 1931 and brought back to Switzerland in 1932. Wieber was a nurse who shortly worked in Albert Schweitzer’s hospital in Lambaréné. The Nobel Peace Prize winner had founded the hospital in 1913 in the Central African Rainforest at the Ogooué river. Although the exact function of this head remains uncertain, it is not unlike the many guardian heads that were placed on top of reliquary bundles that are ubiquitous in this region of Gabon. Such a package containing the remains of selected ancestors and thereby functioned as an allegorical body for the head, which had a protective function. The art of the Tsogho is characterized by a tendency towards abstraction. The facial features of this head correspond with the typical style, particularly the oval flat face, big eyebrow arch, slanting eyes, small triangular nose, and almond-shaped mouth carved in low relief. Three tresses of hair project forward on top of the head. The head shows traces of white natural kaolin pigment. White was the color associated with the dead and the spirits, so its presence should be no surprise if this head indeed was once used in a context of ancestor worship.
Provenance
Olga Wieber, Lambaréné, 1932
Johan Henau, Antwerp, 2012
Cees Van Strien Collection
By descent through family, 2022
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