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The angular lines of this sculpture take inspiration from African tribal wood carvings. Revealing of his attitudes towards this subject, Gaudier-Brzeska described this work as 'a study of the primitive so that I may carve stone with more purpose'.

Taking inspiration from the monumental Rapa Nui-Easter Island carving Hoa Hakananai'a, which the artist would undoubtedly have seen in the British Museum's collection, he further stated that new forms and styles of sculpture had ‘no relation to classic Greek, but... is continuing the tradition of the barbaric peoples of the earth (for whom we have sympathy and admiration).'

This is one of four bronzes, cast from a plaster maquette for a garden ornament modelled before the First World War. The original plaster is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Orleans. It may have been intended as a reduced-scale study for a bird-bath.

This work was included in the PITCH BLACK digital Black History tours of the National Museum Wales collections.