The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Nursing Woman with Child
1800s-1900s
Overall: 63.6 cm (25 1/16 in.)
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
The mother’s face, adorned with incisions and markings, resembles that of women who have reached puberty.Description
Beyond its specific depiction of a mother nursing her child, this sculpture symbolizes a larger concept of ancestral motherhood that is central to Senufo society, in which cultural inheritance is matrilineal. The darkened areas of wood come from oils applied to its surface as both libations and surface protectants. In some Senufo beliefs, one of the most important founding ancestors is the Great Mother or Ancient Woman (Katyeleeo or Maleeo). In groups that believe in the Great Mother, she suckles male initiates with the "milk of knowledge." Through this process, youths gain the information they need to become adults (that is, fully human). The simplified appearance of the "child" in this sculpture reflects his unformed, pre-initiated state.- ?-1961Mathias Komor, New York, NY, 1961, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art1961-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Lee, Sherman E. "Year in Review 1961." In Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 48, no. 9 (November 1961): 248, cat. 24; repr. p. 233. p.248, cat. 24; repr. p. 233 www.jstor.orgThe Nelson Gallery of Art. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-literate People of the World. Kansas City, MO: The Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum, 1962, 22, no. 27. Mentioned: p. 22, cat. no. 27The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966, 302. Reproduced: p. 302 archive.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969, 302. Reproduced: p. 302 archive.orgElizabeth Broudy and Elizabeth Youngblood. Icon and Symbol: The Cult of the Ancestor in African Art. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Cranbrook Academy of Art & Museum, 1975, cat. 9. cat. no. 9Weisberg, Gabriel P. Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975, cat. no. 54. cat. no. 54The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978, 410. Reproduced: p. 410 archive.orgDrewal, Henry John. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig. 21. fig. 21The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991, 149. p.149 archive.orgGibbons, Martha B., and Jo Zuppan. Interpretations: Sixty-five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991, 42. p. 42Petridis, Constantine. South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003, 47, color plate 8. p.47, color plate 8.Petridis, Constantine. "A New Installation for African Art in Cleveland." In Tribal 3, no. 36 (Autumn/Winter 2004): 68-73. p.68-73Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 29Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth, and Constantijn Petridis. Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. p. 146, fig. 97Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth and Constantine Petridis. "Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa." In African Arts 48, no. 1 (Spring 2015): 6-23. Reproduced: p. 8, fig. 2.Cyvoct, Colin. “L'Afrique des Senufo au Musee Fabre.” In L'Œil 687 (Janvier 2016): 90. Reproduced: p. 90 www.lejournaldesarts.frGeoffroy-Schneiter, Bérénice. “L'Art Senufo au Sommet.” L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art 520 (Février 2016): 6. Reproduced: p. 6. www.estampille-objetdart.comCole, Herbert M. Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa.
Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2017. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 145-146Liebert, Emily, Nadiah Fellah, and William Griswold. Picturing Motherhood Now. Cleveland : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021 Mentioned & Reproduced: P. 10-11, fig. 3Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. The language of beauty in African art. 2022. - The Language of Beauty in African Art. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (April 3-July 31, 2022) https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/language-beauty-african-art; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 20, 2022-February 27, 2023) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9344/the-language-of-beauty-in-african-art.Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-May 31, 2015); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (June 28-September 27, 2015); Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (November 28, 2015-March 6, 2016).Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-26, 1961).
- {{cite web|title=Nursing Woman with Child|url=false|author=|year=1800s-1900s|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1961.198