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"Dis 'n genot van die hart" se Laubser
1 Jan 2013
"Portrait of a Girl with Geese" is one of the loveliest paintings by Maggie Laubser to have come onto the market in many years. Not only is it an excellent example of her early and much sought-after works but it has an impeccable provenance. It was acquired by Professor Pieter van Braam, Professor of Classics at Stellenbosch University, from the 1930 exhibition organised by the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurverenigings in Stellenbosch and has been in the same family for several generations.
The placement of the girl’s head to the left of centre, with her eyes looking to the right focuses our attention on the appealing child with her sweet features and directs us to the geese, creating an harmonious composition replete with the tranquillity and wholesomeness of the country life that Maggie so adored. Born on the farm, Bloublommetjieskloof, Laubser developed a deep love of nature and a respect for all living things which is clearly communicated in her finest paintings.
After living and working on Lake Garda in Italy for two years, she returned to South Africa in 1920 before taking up residence in Berlin for a further two years, where she came into contact with the German Expressionists. In 1924 she was back home, settling on the farm Oortmanspost, near Klipheuwel in the Malmesbury District. There she began to develop her distinctive pastoral themes, often including portraits of the labourers and their families, contextualised within their milieu. The best of these evidence the artist’s empathy with her sitters. On the basis of its style, including a strong composition and the refinement of form through the use of more shades of colour or tone scale and more substantial paint application, this painting is consistent with works produced around 1928.
Laubser described her approach to her subject in an article published in Die Huisgenoot in 1939:
Ek bekyk dit noukeurig … Dan het ek my indruk en is vry om te skilder. Ek moet vry wees om te sklider; ek voel my gebonde as ek gedurig die toneel moet aanskou – dan verloor ek my eie siening daarvan. Die skildery moet in die kunstenaar se binneste kom met bewustheid van kleure, figure en lyne. Ons noem dit geheue, maar dit is meer as geheue: dit is die beeld wat lewe in die eie bewussyn, verskillend vir elke mens, lewendig soos ‘n voël, maar onbekend. Geen mens kan volgens vasgestelde reels skilder nie; dis ‘n genot van die hart, ‘n persoonlike ontwaking. ¹
I study it closely … Then I have my impression and I’m free to paint. I must be free to paint; I feel bound if I have to repeatedly view the scene – then I lose my own vision of it. The painting must appear in the artist’s innermost being with consciousness of colours, forms and lines. We call this memory, but it is more than memory: it is the image that lives in your own consciousness, different for every person, alive as a bird, but unknown. No person can paint according to rules; it is a joy of the heart, a personal awakening. ²
Text by Emma Bedford, Senior Paintings Specialist
Lot 494
Maggie Laubser
Portrait of a Girl with Geese
Signed with initials
Oil on cardboard
37 x 46 cm
R1 500 000 – 2 000 000
Maggie Laubser, ‘Waarom en hoe ek skilder’, Die Huisgenoot, 18 Augustus, 1939, bl ??
Translated by the author
2013 Press Releases
November
October
- 14 Oct 2013 Strauss Online: Time-limited auction sales exclusively online
- 20 Oct 2013 Pocket Money to Millions & students keen eye for art admirably rewarded
- 30 Oct 2013 As Large as Life The Ceramics of Irma Stern
- 30 Oct 2013 Seminal works from Jane Alexander's masters show destined for auction
- 30 Oct 2013 Staging a moment in art - William Kentridge and Opera
- 30 Oct 2013 Through The Eyes Of An Artist - Romantic Accounts Of Africa
September
- 7 Sep 2013 Discovery of Double-sided Laubser Painting Delights at Strauss Spring Auction
- 7 Sep 2013 Hodgins for the brave
- 7 Sep 2013 Hot Stuff from Goodman
- 7 Sep 2013 Humanist's Vision of Early Cape Town
- 7 Sep 2013 Kentridge's Queen of the Night
- 7 Sep 2013 Kruger on the Station
- 7 Sep 2013 Pierneef on a Grand Scale
- 7 Sep 2013 Preller's Exotic Explorations
- 7 Sep 2013 Stern Scintillates at Strauss & Co's October Auction
- 7 Sep 2013 Stern's Island Reveries
- 7 Sep 2013 The Pleasures of Food, Friends and Art
- 7 Sep 2013 WWF Art Auction Poised to Raise Record Funds
- 18 Sep 2013 Millions raised at WWF Art Auction
May
- 10 May 2013 Vladimir Tretchikoff's unique rendition of Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Alicia Markova
- 10 May 2013 You only live twice.....
- 15 May 2013 Strauss & Co to sell one of the world's most reproduced paintings
- 15 May 2013 Tretchi fever heats up
- 20 May 2013 R1 818 880 for Last Supper
- 24 May 2013 Private donation of iconic Chris Levin designs to boost Iziko Collection
April
- 24 Apr 2013 Iconic South African artworks spanning 160 years set to go under the hammer in May
- 29 Apr 2013 Strauss & Co goes Vintage with South African Haute Couture Legend, Chris Levin
February
January
- 1 Jan 2013 "Dis 'n genot van die hart" se Laubser
- 1 Jan 2013 Early Naude' Captures Charms of a Bygone Era at the Cape
- 1 Jan 2013 Gem of a Painting evokes Malay Quarter
- 1 Jan 2013 Large Battiss Combines Sensuality and Virtuosity
- 1 Jan 2013 One of Stern's Most Compelling Portraits
- 1 Jan 2013 Rare Siopis at Auction
- 1 Jan 2013 Van Wouw Skill Shines in Early Italian cast
- 3 Jan 2013 Cape Furniture From The Collection Of Dr Bothma Buitendag, For Sale At Strauss & Co
- 3 Jan 2013 Impact of Modernism Demonstrated in Seminal Painting
- 3 Jan 2013 Important Cape Silver presentation covered cup, John Townsend, circa 1830
- 10 Jan 2013 Contemporary Jewellery by Design Maestro Erich Frey For Sale At Strauss & Co
- 14 Jan 2013 Chairman's Report 2012