FEATURE 106 Two very fi ne masks that were collected in the late nineteenth century (1897 and 1887) are similarly oval in shape. The fi rst (fi g. 5), which passed through Galerie Leloup, has a sort of collar beneath the triangular face. The thick eyebrows project outward and the eyes are oblique slits. The bulging forehead has a large red triangle on it, and the eyes, nose, and cheeks also have red highlights. The chin and the top of the mouth are colored with kaolin in an upward-pointing triangle. The second mask (fi g. 8) is in the Museum Etnografiska in Göteborg and was exhibited in Stockholm in 1988. It is illustrated in the accompanying catalog. A mask brought back in 1890 by Pastor Virgile Gacon is at the Musée de l’Areuse in Switzerland (fi g. 7). It is 28 centimeters high and atypical. Unlike other Galwa masks, it has a black oval on its forehead. The straight black eyebrows hang over a semicircular orange area that includes the two elongated eyes. A black fi eld extends from the base of the fi ne nose to the temples, with the thin red mouth in the middle. Two high-quality masks that were brought to the United States for the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo display great power. One is male, with large black eyebrows and a red triangle on the forehead (fi g. 10), and the second is female with a white triangle on the forehead and a projecting raffi a diadem (fi g. 9). Both masks have an elongated oval face with the same slit eyes and color fi elds of white, red, and black. Both mouths, one oval and the other crescent shaped, are slightly open. TWENTIETH-CENTURY MASKS Two masks that are documented to 1929 and 1930 are nearly identical in height (30 cm and 28 cm) and have retained their superb red, navy blue, and white rooster-tail feather head decorations. The fi rst, on display at the Penn Museum (fi g. 11), is a masterpiece. The oval face has remarkably fi ne features, the eyes are elongated, the colored triangles are black on the cheeks, red at the temples, and white at the nose and the chin. The second mask has a large pointed mouth. It was sold at the Hôtel Drouot at a February 9–11, 1930, auction, and it bears the number 7975 in the Yale Van Rijn Archive of African Art. MASKS GIVEN TO THE “GREAT WHITE DOCTOR” Gertrud Koch, Albert Schweitzer’s chief nurse, brought several Galwa masks to Europe in the 1950s. The fi rst (fi g. 16) has a white forehead with a black triangle on it, large deeply set globular red eyes with slits from the nose to the temples, and a fi ne nose, colored black like the bottom of the face. It was sold at auction by Ader Picard Tajan on May 21, 1990, as lot 73 and achieved a record price for a Galwa mask. The second, which is now in a Parisian private collection, is 35 centimeters high and is also of superb quality (fi g. 19). It refl ects the archetype of the ovoid Galwa mask with opposed black triangles. The forehead projects outward and it has rounded red and white eyelids reminiscent of those seen on the Teke/Tsaye kidumu masks. The eyes are small slits edged with black. The tiny mouth is painted red and projects forward. The kaolin patina on the forehead and the bottom of the cheeks is remarkable. A third Koch mask has been identifi ed, also in private hands (fi g. 17). It belonged to Marcel de Schryver, owner of Galerie Témoin in Geneva. This one is distinguished by its dark brown color and the immense black triangle on its forehead, which unlike on other Galwa masks, does not extend as far as the eyebrows. The prominent cheekbones and the bottom of the chin are also black. Lastly, another mask accessioned by the Berg en Dal Museum in the Netherlands in 1930 (fi g. 15) was brought back by a Dutch physician who worked with Schweitzer and who apparently received it as a gift from a village chief when a child was born. It is ovoid in shape and the pointed chin emphasizes the raffi a collar. The black triangle on the forehead is opposed by an unusual orange and black one below the nose. MASKS WITH A BLACK TRIANGLE Three other masks with opposing black triangles on the forehead and the lower face have at least partially retained their raffi a decoration. The fi rst is of very fi ne quality and belongs to the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. It was formerly in the Alberto Magnelli Collection (fi g. 13) and is in a fl at style like Vuvi and Tsogho masks. It has fi ne eyes, elongated to the temples like the one at Berg en Dal. Two other masks, one in the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva (fi g. 14) and the other in the Musée des Arts et Traditions in Libreville (MNATG 65-01-06), have elongated almond-shaped red eyes that extend to the temples. The Musée Historique et Ethnographique of St. Gall also has a good mask (fi g. 18). Its distinguish-
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