PORAPORA Bone Mask

Provenance: Collected in the field by Pierre J. Langlois (1927-2015) and Marcel Évrard (1920-2009) in 1959-60.

Provenance : Collection Henri Descazeaux. Subsequently by descent. It was part of a group of African, Oceanic and American art objects acquired by Mr. Descazeaux from Parisian tribal art galleries in the 1950s/60s (Ratton, Leloup...), but also from private individuals, including André Fourquet, a friend of the family. Subsequently misidentified as coming from Timor and offered for sale as such (see Osenat - Les Curiosités De Breteuil, 22 May 2024, lot 191).

Literature:
Ref.: Meyer, Anthony JP: OCEANIC ART / OZEANISCHE KUNST / OCEANIC ART. Könemann Verlag, Köln. 1995, Fig. 207, p. 198/199.

See similar examples acquired from Claude Bernard : Max Ernst Collection (now the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra) ; Mesnil Collection, Houston ; André Breton Collection (now the Georges Pompidou National Centre for Contemporary Art) ; Odette and René Delenne Collection, Brussels ; Collection The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection - The Museum of Primitive Art (now the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) ; Collection of Fred Deux and Cécile Rheims (now Musée de l'hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun) (acquired from the Gal. Meyer) ; Galerie Meyer - Oceanic Art (four masks from the collection of Pierre Loeb, by descent to Albert Loeb, 3 of which are in private collections) ; and one from the Daniel Cordier collection. A set of these masks remained in Marcel Evrard's collection and were sold on June 8, 2022 by the auctioneer Ader, at Drouot, Paris.

Exhibition: Exhibition : 30 Porpora masks, at the Galerie Claude Bernard, 5 rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, organized by Marcel Evrard, 6 Oct - 6 Nov 1961. Probably acquired at the exhibition.