Notes

In 1971 the University of Cape Town opened the doors of the Irma Stern Museum to the public for the first time. The Firs had been Irma Stern’s home and studio for more than four decades and to this day several of the rooms are furnished as she arranged them.

Irma's zest for life expressed in her love of abundant colour is evident everywhere in each of the rooms in which she lived, worked and enjoyed entertaining. Best known for her exuberant oil paintings, Irma Stern was also an accomplished ceramicist. Examples of Irma's ceramics (used by the artist in many of her still life paintings) can be viewed at the museum. Created between 1949 and 1954, they include large earthenware jars and jugs as well as vases decorated with female figures and unglazed plates embellished with faces.¹

The vase in this still life painting is by Stern. The large leaf obscures much of the vase which is adorned with figures standing in a daisy chain, their placement echoing the shape of the vase. Christopher Peter, curator of the Irma Stern Museum, has identified the vase as no 166 in the museum’s collection.

¹ http://www.irmastern.co.za/artist.htm