Cricket Player

Thomas Ona Odulate (c. 1900–52), Ijebu Ode, Nigeria (map), c. 1930s

Carved and painted wood

Ex–old English collection

9.5” h x 2.5” w (24 x 6.5 cm)

SOLD

Probably the most famous Yoruba carver of colonial sculpture, Thomas Ona Odulate developed a reputation of producing pleasing sculptures of European personages executed in a quintessentially Yoruba style. “Europeans, not accustomed to seeing themselves represented in an African style of sculpture[,] presumed that they were being caricatured. Ona however declared, when interviewed by William Bascom, that he was simply representing the world as he saw it” (Willett 1971: 143, fig. 132).

For an example of an English soldier or off-duty officer, vide Lips (1937: 86, fig. 35).

REFERENCES

Lips, Julius Ernst. The Savage Hits Back: Or the White Man through Native Eyes. London:

Lovat Dickson, 1937.

Willet, Frank. African Art: an Introduction. New York: Praeger, 1971.

SOLD