Couple for a komien (trance diviner)

“Masters from Essankro” (active ca. 1820–ca. 1900, Côte d’Ivoire) 

A carving workshop of at least three Baule sculptors, led by a master from the N’Zipri lineage, thrived within the village of Essankro for much of the nineteenth century. Art historian Susan Vogel documented at least one of their works in situ. She proposes that members of this circle were likely of the same generation and drew inspiration and influence from one another. Hallmarks of their style are evident in some twenty figures  

and four masks, now in private European collections. These elements include elongated torsos, flexed legs with pronounced calves, heart-shaped faces, flattened and pursed lips, delicately carved hands, and defined, U-shaped shoulder blades that frame a faint spinal groove.