A journey into the native forests
Tuesday, February 4th 2025
Ngil mask
Carved essessang wood.
Raffia.
Height 60 Width 27 cm.
(washed kaolin patina, raffia added after 1954, a burn mark on the forehead, small blemishes and missing chips)
Provenance: private French collection.
Certificate from the Ciram laboratory, May 5, 2025.
Carbon-14 dating results:
- 1660-1700 (17.4 %)
- 1721-1815 (46,8 %)
- 1833-1888 (11,6 %)
- 1908-1954 (19,6 %)
This Fang mask is associated with the Ngil secret justice society, once active in the equatorial forests of Gabon. Coming out at nightfall, the members of this society conducted investigations into witchcraft. Its members wore large, oblong masks covered in white kaolin, with eye openings represented by two small slits and no mouth openings in order to preserve the anonymity of voices and faces. The stylized scarification marks and geometric shapes of these masks had a profound impact on twentieth-century artists, at the forefront of which was Picasso, who was fascinated by the Fang mask from the Derain collection, now held in the collections of Centre Pompidou (AM 1982-248).
Only a dozen similar examples are known; they are held both in public collections - Quai Branly Museum (71.1965.104.1), Dapper (2657), Berlin (IIIC6000) and Denver (1942.0443) - and in private collections - Witthofs (Brussels), Vérité (Paris), Fournier (Montpellier)… This mask, which was recently discovered in a French collection, is made of the same wood as one found in the Quai Branly collections. Its fine features, large rounded forehead and strong design make it stand out. For unknown reasons, the kaolin covering it seems to have been washed off and raffia was added to its jawline in the second half of the 20th century. With no documented provenance, it is symbolically offered at auction for what it is: the powerful expression of a major African art form that revolutionized global artistic creation in the 20th century.
Estimate: 10,000€
