Male figure

early 20th century

Object PlaceLake Sentani, Papua Province, Indonesia

Medium/TechniqueWood

DimensionsHeight x width: 26 3/4 x 6 1/2 in., 18.5 cm (68 x 16.5 cm, 7 5/16 in.)

Credit LineBequest of William E. Teel

Accession number2014.328

On View

On view

ClassificationsSculpture

Collections

Africa and Oceania

Provenance1929, acquired near Dojo, in the Lake Sentani region of Indonesia by Jacques Viot (b. 1898 – d. 1973) for Pierre Loeb (dealer), Paris [see note]; sold by Loeb to René Rasmussen, Paris; from Rasmussen to André Schoeller (dealer), Paris; sold by Schoeller to a private collector, France; June 21, 1979, anonymous sale (“property of a French private collection”), Sotheby’s, New York, lot 46, not sold. July 21, 1988, sold by Tambaran Gallery, New York, to William and Bertha Teel, Marblehead, MA; 2014, bequest of William Teel to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 26, 2014)

NOTE: In 1929, Jacques Viot signed a contract with Pierre Loeb, who ran the Galerie Pierre in Paris. Loeb paid Viot to travel and purchase Oceanic art for him. By this time, many chiefs' houses had been destroyed and figural sculptures discarded as Christian missionaries had converted the Lake Sentani region. Viot removed about 60 submerged house posts and sculptures from the lake. He photographed this figure in 1929 before sending it to Paris; see S. Kooijman, The Art of Lake Sentani (New York, 1959), fig. 43.