Théophile Chudzinki (1840-1897) Molding of a head of an inhabitant of the New Hebrides Patinated plaster, hair and eyebrows, beard Signed "T. CH.SC (for sculpsit)" Titled "Ouaron / Néo-Hebridais" H : 21 cm, on a patinated plaster pedestal H : 10,5 cm Related literature : L. Manouvrier, " Notice sur Théophile Chudzinski ", in Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, 1897, 8, pp. 664-670. Provenance : Jacques Villeminot (1924), Paris, then by descent. This impressive head is a plaster cast made from life by the Lithuanian natural scientist Theophile Chudzinksi, a protégé of Professor Paul Broca, the founding president of the Anthropological Society of Paris. He was an assistant professor at the Laboratory of Anthropology from the 1870s. The work belonged to the filmmaker and ethnologist Jacques Villeminot, who dedicated most of his life to the study of the peoples of New Guinea and more particularly to Papuan rites. His interest in anthropology led him to collect ethnographic sculptures, including this rare cast. Our cast can be compared to the head of Ataï, leader of the resistance of the Kanak clan, cast by Félix Flandinette in 1879 at the request of Pierre Broca.