Water Container

Early/mid–20th century

Baule
Tanoh Sakassou, Côte d’Ivoire
Coastal West Africa

Well-made pots like this thin-walled water container are appreciated for the beauty they bring to a living space. Baule potters learn to produce such dark-colored, wide-bodied pots for a variety of household uses by proceeding from observation and imitation to formal education. To embellish the vessel displayed here, a potter etched lines into its body and highlighted them with kaolin (a clay mineral).

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Baule
Title: Water Container
Place: Côte d'Ivoire (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1900–1950
Medium: Blackened terracotta, wash, and kaolin
Dimensions: 33.7 × 39.4 cm (13 1/4 × 15 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Keith Achepohl
Reference Number: 2004.741

Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “Water Container, Pitcher for Palm Wine, Bottle,” Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 32, 1 (2006), pp. 14-15, 94.
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, For Hearth and Altar: African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection (The Art Institute and Yale University Press, 2005), pp. 94-96.

Art Institute of Chicago, For Hearth and Altar: African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection, Dec. 3, 2005-Feb. 20, 2006, cat. 47.

Unknown owner, Tanoh Sakassou [village near Bouaké], Côte d’Ivoire, about 1990; sold to Jérome Vogel, New York, N.Y., about 1990; sold to Tom Alexander, St. Louis, Mo., about 1990; sold to Keith Achepoh, about 1990; given to the Art Institute, 2004.

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