Female figure

The graceful tilt of this sculpture gives a sense of movement to the elegant woman depicted with her arms at waist height and her knees bent. Her expression is reserved, with eyes nearly closed and mouth slightly pursed. The artist has accentuated the woman's high forehead with a fashionable coiffure, its central crest directly aligned with the woman's pert nose. The neatly carved passages of braiding along the woman's hairline echo the triangular scarification pattern on her abdomen. The hairstyle, scars, and ridged neck, which Sherbro women created through bindings, point to a woman committed to fashion and beauty. The herniated umbilicus and the elongated breasts both suggest that this elegant woman has borne many children.  Now displayed without adornment, this figure would once have worn a wrapper around the waist.

This is the earliest collected sculpture by the Master of the Flat Hands, an artist active in the late nineteenth century on or near Bonthe Island in Sierra Leone. Seven sculptures of women, as well as three masks, a staff, and a palette, are recognized as the work of this artist, whose name remains unknown. The sculptures all share the elongated neck and torso, angular arms, pendant breasts, decorated stomach, herniated umbilicus, and sharp, angular shape of the bottom visible in this figure.

In this region of Sierra Leone, sculptures of women were used as memorials or for local political and religious societies. Given the excellent condition of this sculpture, though, it was probably purchased directly from the artist before it could be locally used. In the 1890s, the artist was most likely producing pieces for a local clientele as well as for foreigners passing through the busy port on Bonthe. Shipping manifests confirm that Dr. Fitzmaurice Manning, whose granddaughter donated this sculpture to the MFA, lived in Sierra Leone in 1894, where he likely purchased the artwork as a souvenir.