Statue - Baoulé / Ivory Coast

The Baoulé are a people who have lived in Côte d'Ivoire since the 18th century and live for the most part in the center of the country. Guided by their queen Abla Poko, the Baoulé people fled their native Ghana towards what is now Côte d'Ivoire. During this exodus, the queen sacrificed one of her sons in order to cross a river, she later declared: "ba ou li" (the child is dead), leading to the creation of the name Baoulé. Geographically close to the Senoufos, we therefore grasp the inter-influence of these two ethnic groups in relation to the aesthetics applied to their respective statuary. Thus, the Baoulé productions show a certain aestheticism, in particular in the execution of the different hairstyles covered with streaks and the many decorative scarifications running through the body of their statues. Thus, the back and the torso of this statue are decorated with a network of scarifications at will aesthetic and conferring a certain attraction to this piece which already has a particularly neat patina. The coloring of this statuette turns to an orange tint at the level of the veins of the body of the statue, bringing an interesting contrast to the general dark hue of the wood.