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Description

Wooden carving of a woman lying on the back of a sea monster(?); she is shown nude, lying flat on her back with knees slightly raised. She has a labret in her lip. The creature's body is divided into three segments. Its head is painted black with red nostrils, the eyes are round and green, and the gills are well defined and delineated. The tail is black and split, with yellow and red concentric circles at each corner. A circular space has been carved out of the wood under the creature's head.

History Of Use

The history and use of this figure is unknown. It may have been intended as a rattle, for use by a medicine man? It may depict a story, or specific supernatural event, involving a woman being carried away on the back of a sea creature? Jackson Polys (Tlingit) speculated that the story depicted may concern a young woman who becomes obsessed with a wood worm? However he also noted that the creature has numerous sea-creature attributes, including gill slits and tail flukes. However the body segments could allude to the wood worm.

Narrative

Published as belonging to the private collection of Wolfgang Paalen, and of Tlingit origin (Bruce Inverarity, Art of the Northwest Coast Indians, 1950: Plate 218). It is said to have been collected in Sitka, and may be the work of a Tlingit or Haida artist. Sitka was the territorial capital of Alaska at the time and attracted people from across the northern coast; Haida carvings were also traded and sold there. This carving is unusual in the anatomical depiction of a nude woman in repose, and is reminiscent of Haida carvings of medicine men by Simeon Stilthda. The graphic depiction of nudeness, flesh colored paint, and the portrait-like sculpting of the human face all point to a Haida origin, although some Tlingit carvers also created fine portrait-style faces. Human figures in similar repose (more likely male) are depicted on the backs of some northern oyster-catcher rattles; these may or may not be related to the imagery on this piece. This figure may fit into a broader movement of more heavily painted Haida artwork, in line with known painting styles of the aforementioned Stilthda, Dwight Wallace, John Wallace, Robert Ridley, Luke Watson and George Smith. If this work is by a Tlingit artist, it is from the hands of a heretofore unidentified master working in a unique individual style. There are a group of carvings likely by this same maker in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in the US, and those objects were also acquired in Sitka in the late 19th century. (For NMNH figures see E13099-0, E13102-0, E13100-0, and rattle E13098-0). E13098-0 is similar to A2516 in composition, and points to this piece possibly being a partial component of a rattle (the cover to a possible rattle cavity in the back of the figure is now missing). Whether this and similar pieces were functional rattles or items made for sale to collectors is the subject of further research. There is also a model pole that is likely by the same maker in the Pitt Rivers Museum (1884.68.55), and in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkley (2-4799, 2-4790).