About the lot N° 40
Title : Dan Female Portrait Figure
Size : height 22 1/4 in. 56.5cmProvenance : Acquired from Dr. George Harley in Ganta, Liberia, 1943Notes : Sotheby's is pleased to offer a selection of sculptures and textiles from the collection of Jo and Esther Dendel, the proceeds of which will fund a creative writing scholarship in honor of Esther Dendel.Esther Warner Dendel and Jo Dendel lived in Harbel, Liberia on the Firestone rubber plantation from 1941 to 1944. During that time they met Dr. George Way Harley, the well-known anthropologist, who was working at Ganta Mission, from whom they acquired many of the African works of art in their collection. Esther Dendel was a writer of eleven books, including New Song in a Strange Land (1948) and Seven Days to Lomaland (1954), in which she recounts her time in Liberia (see bibliography for a complete list of writings by Dendel). She mentions Dr. Harley throughout, and describes a specific meeting in which they looked at some of the masks he had acquired in New Song in a Strange Land (ibid.: 229-230).Esther Dendel was an artist and had a studio at the Firestone plantation. Jo Dendel was a botanist by trade, and an artist as well and created the illustrations to Mrs. Dendel's books. After returning to California from Africa, the Dendels began a studio called Denwar Ceramics, where they created incredible works of art inspired by their time in Liberia (see Pratt 2002: 26-39 for further discussion on the Denwar studio).Sotheby's, auctioneer
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Sale title : African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art
Sale date : 14 May 2004
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
