Bretschneider Ramu Figure

A powerfully carved ancestor figure possibly representing a recently deceased person. The male figure is shown in a vertical position with down pointing feet. The elongated head is pierced through the coif for suspension. The face is typical of the Ramu river style with bulging eyes and concentric pupils to either side of a large wide and long nose with flared nostrils. The figure wears a dentate beard and has pierced ears. The face and body show ritual or clan identification body ornaments painted with ochre.

Down pointing feet seem synonymous with the representation of the actuality of a dead person ; the feet of the recently deceased tend to point downward as the muscles and tendons distend in death after rigor mortis dissipates approximately 36 to 48 hours after death.

Ramu River, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia. Wood (Alstonia ?), pigments. Early restoration to left foot. 55,5 x 14,3 x 9 cm. 19/20th century.
 

Provenance Provenance : Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich (1909-1987) ; Acquired by Josef Schmidt (1920-1995), Munich. By descent through the family.

Ludwig Bretschneider (1909-1987) was born in London and was an English citizen until 1938. In his early years he began trading through his mother's antique shop in Munich. In 1928 he established his own business. After the Second World War, he traveled extensively buying from reputed dealers such as Jacques Vecht (1916-1995), Aalderink, Loed van Bussel and sometimes Leendert van Lier (1910-1995) as well as Kegel und Konietzko in Hamburg. As an art and antique dealer, he dealt primarily in tribal art from Africa, America and the South Seas and is renowned for being one of the main German dealers of early Benin bronzes. Ludwig Bretschneider was one of the first dealers to present high quality African art at German art fairs and became the Deputy director of the Munich art and antiques fair as of 1955. "Antiquitäten Ludwig Bretschneider" was registered in Munich with premises at Leopoldstraße 38a, and the last premises were located at Possartstraße 6.