H x W x D: 76.4 x 16.4 x 5.5 cm (30 1/16 x 6 7/16 x 2 3/16 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Loango coast, Congo
Date:
Late 19th century
Label Text:
This skillfully carved tusk is an unusually fine example of an important tradition of export art. It belonged to Robert Visser, a German merchant and plantation manager in the Congo region from 1882 to 1904. An aspiring ethnographer, Visser was also an accomplished photographer, and he might be the standing male figure with a box camera in the center of the tusk.
An artist living along the Loango coast in the Congo region almost certainly used iron tools to render, with exquisite detail and lively animation, a series of pictorial sequences in relief that spiral the length of the tusk.
Description:
Ivory tusk ornamented with eleven spiral-carved vignettes that move up the tusk from the base to the rounded tip, which depicts profile views of a standing male figure on one side, and a standing female figure on the other. The vignettes are composed of genre scenes of men and women engaged in a range of activities--hunting, carrying loads, harvesting oil palm nuts and traveling in a canoe--as well as scenes depicting individuals who are shackled or struggling. One vignette depicts an individual, likely a European, carried in a palanquin and reading a book; another depicts a male figure, possible European, standing by what appears to be a box camera on a tripod. Local flora and fauna are also indicated. The tusk is in excellent condition.
Provenance:
Robert Visser, Dusseldorf, acquired along the Loango coast, c. 1885
Descending in Jansen family collection
Udo Horstmann, Zug, Switzerland
Robert Visser, ca. 1885 to 1937
Jansen family and B. Jansen, grandson of Robert Visser, 1937 to 2007
Udo Horstmann, 2007
Exhibition History:
African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (deinstalled April 23, 2014)
African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010-November 13, 2013
Published References:
How to Look at African Art. 2013. Gallery guide. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
National Museum of African Art. 2010. African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting. Exhibition card. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, no. 14 (detail).
Strother, Z. S. 2013. "'A Photograph Steals the Soul': The History of an Idea." Portraiture & Photography in Africa, ed. by John Peffer and Elisabeth L. Cameron. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 186-187, no. 5.1.
Content Statement:
As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
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