A bronze sculpture - Dogon - Mali (No reserve price)
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Selected by Dimitri André
Holds a postgraduate degree in African studies and 15 years experience in African art.
Estimate € 900 - € 1,100
 | €269 | |
|---|---|---|
 | €249 | |
| €219 | |
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A bronze sculpture from Mali in the Dogon Duleri region, titled 'A bronze sculpture', showing a horse with a male rider and a female rider, in bronze, 45 cm high, 4.9 kg, in fair condition and authentic/original.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Dogon Horseman with Female Rider, Mali
Mali, Duleri region,
The horse is conceived with an exceptionally elongated body and four tall, slender legs, creating an elegant and almost architectural structure. Its cylindrical torso is carried high above the ground, while the long neck rises vertically toward a strongly stylized head. The animal is represented as a stallion. Its chest and shoulders are ornamented with repeated overlapping crescent-shaped elements, suggesting an elaborate ceremonial covering, harness or decorative trapping.
The horse's head is particularly expressive. Upright ears, a projecting muzzle and circular eyes are combined with a carefully modelled bridle. Long curved reins descend from the mouth and are controlled by the principal rider. The deliberately exaggerated proportions of the animal emphasize height, dignity and visual rhythm rather than anatomical naturalism.
The male rider occupies the dominant position. His elongated body and long neck culminate in a strongly profiled head with a prominent pointed beard. A conical coiffure or cap is articulated by horizontal bands and terminates in a small rounded finial. Large circular eyes, a projecting nose and an open or protruding mouth give the face an animated expression. One arm extends toward the reins, while the other holds a long vertical implement or staff.
Behind him sits a smaller female figure, identifiable by the modelling of the breasts. Her body follows the posture of the principal rider, while her arms extend forward toward him. The placement of the two figures one behind the other creates a compact human group that contrasts effectively with the extreme verticality and open structure of the horse.
Equestrian imagery occupies an important place within Dogon sculpture. The horse was historically a valuable and prestigious animal in the western Sudan and could evoke authority, wealth, mobility and elevated social standing. Mounted figures in Dogon art may also refer to ancestors, warriors, chiefs or other significant personages, although the precise identity of an individual rider cannot normally be determined from sculptural form alone.
The representation of a mounted couple adds another interpretative dimension. The juxtaposition of male and female figures may evoke partnership, lineage, fertility, continuity or social status. Similar equestrian couples have sometimes been interpreted in the art market as marriage-related objects or wedding gifts. Without documentation of the original context, however, such a specific function should remain a possibility rather than a definitive identification.
The attribution to the Duleri region is particularly valuable because Dogon artistic production encompasses considerable regional and stylistic diversity. The present work should therefore not be treated as a generalized western Sudanic or Bamana equestrian sculpture. Its recorded identification places it specifically within a Dogon context in the Duleri region of Mali.
The use of bronze or copper alloy further distinguishes the sculpture from the wooden equestrian figures more commonly associated with Dogon collections. Lost-wax casting allows the horse, riders, reins and projecting attributes to form an intricate three-dimensional composition. Slight asymmetries and irregularities in modelling contribute to the individuality of the casting.
Particular attention has been devoted to the horse's harness and chest ornamentation, the facial features of the riders, the thin reins and the vertical attribute carried by the principal figure. These details contrast with the deliberately elongated and simplified treatment of the bodies and reinforce the rhythmic character of the composition.
The metal surface displays predominantly dark brown to greenish tones with lighter exposed areas, localized oxidation and surface deposits. Variations in patination and wear are visible throughout.
Literature:
Hélène Leloup, Dogon, Musée du quai Branly and Somogy Éditions d’Art, Paris, 2011.
Hélène Leloup, Statuaire Dogon, Amez, Strasbourg, 1994.
Kate Ezra, Art of the Dogon: Selections from the Lester Wunderman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988.
Jean Laude, African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers, The Viking Press, New York, 1973.
Some of the information and photos are generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history documents. All information and photos are protected by copyright.
Inv. No. MAZ28995
Legal Framework
Under the 1970 UNESCO Convention in combination with the Kulturgutschutz Gesetz (KGSG) any claim for the restitution of cultural property becomes time-barred three years after the competent authorities of the State of origin obtain knowledge of the object’s location and the identity of its possessor.
All bronzes and terracotta items offered have been publicly exhibited in Wolfgang Jaenicke Gallery since 2001. Organisations such as DIGITAL BENIN and academic institutions such as the Technical University of Berlin, which have been intensively involved in restitution-reseaches (translocation-project) over the past seven years, are aware of our work, have inspected large parts of our collection and have visited us in our dependance in Lomé, Togo, among other places, to learn about the international Art trade on site. Furthermore, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) in Abuja, Nigeria, has been informed about our collection. In no case in the past have there been restitution claims against private institutions such as the Wolfgang Jaenicke Gallery
Our Gallery addresses these structural challenges through a policy of maximum transparency and documentation. Should any questions or uncertainties arise, we invite you to contact us. Each matter will be reviewed diligently using all available resources.
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Dogon Horseman with Female Rider, Mali
Mali, Duleri region,
The horse is conceived with an exceptionally elongated body and four tall, slender legs, creating an elegant and almost architectural structure. Its cylindrical torso is carried high above the ground, while the long neck rises vertically toward a strongly stylized head. The animal is represented as a stallion. Its chest and shoulders are ornamented with repeated overlapping crescent-shaped elements, suggesting an elaborate ceremonial covering, harness or decorative trapping.
The horse's head is particularly expressive. Upright ears, a projecting muzzle and circular eyes are combined with a carefully modelled bridle. Long curved reins descend from the mouth and are controlled by the principal rider. The deliberately exaggerated proportions of the animal emphasize height, dignity and visual rhythm rather than anatomical naturalism.
The male rider occupies the dominant position. His elongated body and long neck culminate in a strongly profiled head with a prominent pointed beard. A conical coiffure or cap is articulated by horizontal bands and terminates in a small rounded finial. Large circular eyes, a projecting nose and an open or protruding mouth give the face an animated expression. One arm extends toward the reins, while the other holds a long vertical implement or staff.
Behind him sits a smaller female figure, identifiable by the modelling of the breasts. Her body follows the posture of the principal rider, while her arms extend forward toward him. The placement of the two figures one behind the other creates a compact human group that contrasts effectively with the extreme verticality and open structure of the horse.
Equestrian imagery occupies an important place within Dogon sculpture. The horse was historically a valuable and prestigious animal in the western Sudan and could evoke authority, wealth, mobility and elevated social standing. Mounted figures in Dogon art may also refer to ancestors, warriors, chiefs or other significant personages, although the precise identity of an individual rider cannot normally be determined from sculptural form alone.
The representation of a mounted couple adds another interpretative dimension. The juxtaposition of male and female figures may evoke partnership, lineage, fertility, continuity or social status. Similar equestrian couples have sometimes been interpreted in the art market as marriage-related objects or wedding gifts. Without documentation of the original context, however, such a specific function should remain a possibility rather than a definitive identification.
The attribution to the Duleri region is particularly valuable because Dogon artistic production encompasses considerable regional and stylistic diversity. The present work should therefore not be treated as a generalized western Sudanic or Bamana equestrian sculpture. Its recorded identification places it specifically within a Dogon context in the Duleri region of Mali.
The use of bronze or copper alloy further distinguishes the sculpture from the wooden equestrian figures more commonly associated with Dogon collections. Lost-wax casting allows the horse, riders, reins and projecting attributes to form an intricate three-dimensional composition. Slight asymmetries and irregularities in modelling contribute to the individuality of the casting.
Particular attention has been devoted to the horse's harness and chest ornamentation, the facial features of the riders, the thin reins and the vertical attribute carried by the principal figure. These details contrast with the deliberately elongated and simplified treatment of the bodies and reinforce the rhythmic character of the composition.
The metal surface displays predominantly dark brown to greenish tones with lighter exposed areas, localized oxidation and surface deposits. Variations in patination and wear are visible throughout.
Literature:
Hélène Leloup, Dogon, Musée du quai Branly and Somogy Éditions d’Art, Paris, 2011.
Hélène Leloup, Statuaire Dogon, Amez, Strasbourg, 1994.
Kate Ezra, Art of the Dogon: Selections from the Lester Wunderman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988.
Jean Laude, African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers, The Viking Press, New York, 1973.
Some of the information and photos are generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history documents. All information and photos are protected by copyright.
Inv. No. MAZ28995
Legal Framework
Under the 1970 UNESCO Convention in combination with the Kulturgutschutz Gesetz (KGSG) any claim for the restitution of cultural property becomes time-barred three years after the competent authorities of the State of origin obtain knowledge of the object’s location and the identity of its possessor.
All bronzes and terracotta items offered have been publicly exhibited in Wolfgang Jaenicke Gallery since 2001. Organisations such as DIGITAL BENIN and academic institutions such as the Technical University of Berlin, which have been intensively involved in restitution-reseaches (translocation-project) over the past seven years, are aware of our work, have inspected large parts of our collection and have visited us in our dependance in Lomé, Togo, among other places, to learn about the international Art trade on site. Furthermore, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) in Abuja, Nigeria, has been informed about our collection. In no case in the past have there been restitution claims against private institutions such as the Wolfgang Jaenicke Gallery
Our Gallery addresses these structural challenges through a policy of maximum transparency and documentation. Should any questions or uncertainties arise, we invite you to contact us. Each matter will be reviewed diligently using all available resources.
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Details
Ethnic group/ culture
Dogon
Country of Origin
Mali
Material
Bronze
Sold with stand
No
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A bronze sculpture
Height
45 cm
Weight
4.9 kg
Authenticity
Original/official
Sold by
GermanyVerified
protop
Rechtliche Informationen des Verkäufers
- Unternehmen:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
- Repräsentant:
- Wolfgang Jaenicke
- Adresse:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
Klausenerplatz 7
14059 Berlin
GERMANY - Telefonnummer:
- +493033951033
- Email:
- w.jaenicke@jaenicke-njoya.com
- USt-IdNr.:
- DE241193499
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