The subject of father and child probably derives from the sculptures of St Anthony and the Christ child displayed by Catholic missionaries. For another father and child figure, see no.42 on the previous page of this website.

Henri Junod discusses Muhlati in his two volume Life of a South African tribe. He was 'a sculptor living in the neighbourhood of Lourenço Marques. This artist, who was very proud of his work, and asked a tolerably high price for it, claimed to be able to carve anything and everything: birds, four-footed beasts, or men. He was famous throughout the land for his talent'.6 Muhlati's most famous work is his sculpture of a leopard (with a detachable tail) devouring an Englishman, now in the Museacute;e d'ethnographie, Neuchatel (see pp.13-14 for Junod's description of this piece). His distinctive style is characterised by pokerwork representing hair and clothes on a blonde wood, and, more specifically, incised circular eyes heightened with pokerwork, circular ears with an intruding triangular form, slit mouths, hands with simplified parallel grooves for fingers, and a running motif of cross-hatching often on the base or support.

Other works by him are illustrated in Julius E Lips, The savage hits back, London, 1937, p.172, fig.143; and Ubuntu Arts et cultures d'Afrique du Sud, Paris, 2002, no.18 (a work in the collection of Musée National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, Paris (A99-29-5), incorrectly ascribed to Basotho).

6 H A Junod, Life of a South African tribe, New York, 1962, v.2, pp.135-136.