THE RATTON MASK

Equatorial Africa, 19th century or earlier
Wood, camwood powder, kaolin; height 22.9 cm
provenance

Joseph Brummer, Paris
Frank Burty Haviland, Paris, presumably acquired from the above in 1908
Hôtel Drouot, Salle No. 10, Étienne Ader/André Portier, Collection de Monsieur F. B. H. Arts Primitifs. Afrique et Océanie, June 22, 1936, lot 41
Charles Ratton, Paris, acquired at the above auction and until his death in 1986
Guy Ladrière, Paris, by descent from the above
Merton D. Simpson, New York, acquired from the above
Werner Muensterberger, New York, acquired from the above on January 17, 1991
Sold by Heinrich Schweizer to a Private Collection, 2010

exhibited

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, The invention of the 20th Century. Carl Einstein and the Avantgarde, November 12, 2008 – February 16, 2009

published

Carl Einstein, Negerplastik, Leipzig: Verlag der Weissen Bücher, 1915, and Munich: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1920 (re‐edition), pl. 88
Paul Guillaume and Thomas Munro, La Sculpture Nègre Primitive, Paris: Les Editions G. Cres & Cie., 1929, pl. 27
Carl Einstein, Negerplastik, Berlin: Fannei & Walz), 1992, p. 118, pl. 88
Liliane Meffre, Ezio Bassani and Jean‐Louis Paudrat (eds.), Carl Einstein, La sculpture nègre, Montreal and Paris: L'Harmattan, 1998, cat. 88
George Nelson Preston, “Dr. Werner Muensterberger”, Tribal Art, No. 39, Autumn/Winter 2005, p. 118, fig. 7
Uwe Fleckner (ed.), La Invención del Siglo XX: Carl Einstein y las Vanguardias, Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2009, p. 117, cat. 35
Uwe Fleckner (ed.), The Invention of the 20th Century: Carl Einstein and the Avant-Gardes, Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2009, p. 117, cat. 35
Carl Einstein, Negro Sculpture, Amsterdam: November Editions, 2016, pl. 88

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