The horse paws the ground, to make itself look impressive. It is proud of its looks and wants to impress the others.
A typical work by Ephraim, who is famed for his charming animal sculptures – especially of horses. Having grown up on a farm, Ephraim saw lots of horses in his youth. Polo and polocrosse are popular sports in Zimbabwe, and there are some lovely horses around!
Ephraim is one of the last living ‘first-generation’ artists from Zimbabwe’s Shona sculpture movement.
He has signed it on the base.
This sculpture is made from a variety of serpentine stone from the area around Guruve in northern Zimbabwe. The addition of a coat of clear wax at the end of the sculpting process enhances the natural colours in the stone.
Apologies, but this variety of stone is fairly soft, more like soapstone than serpentine, but since it’s clearly too small for outdoor display this should not be an issue.
