Notes

Bought from Schweickerdt’s, Pretoria, in the 1950s this painting was probably produced in the late forties or early fifties. By this time Maggie Laubser’s paintings were much sought after by exhibition curators and collectors. She was a member of the New Group from 1943 to 1952 and exhibited regularly with them. She was also a consistent participant in major international exhibitions including the contemporary South African art exhibitions at the Tate Gallery in London in 1948 and the Venice Biennale in 1952 and 1954.This pleasing pastoral scene captures the decorative patterns and rhythms of the arable landscape divided into ploughed and productive fields.

The birds are one of two cattle egret species with white plumage, grey legs and yellow bill that occur in the southwestern Cape. The larger of the two, the Great White Egret, is a rare vagrant in the region, suggesting that the birds depicted by Laubser are rather the Yellow billed Egret, a medium-sized egret found throughout the southwestern Cape near permanent water sources. The adults develop beautiful long plumes on the back in the breeding season, from August to November in the Cape.ⁱ Above the distant, blue mountains a glorious sun spreads its rays and casts its light on this picture of contentment.

ⁱ Dr John Manning, Research Botanist at Compton Herbarium, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, in an email to Emma Bedford, 11 March 2011.

Provenance

Prof and Mrs H W Snyman, Pretoria, bought from Schweickerdt's, Pretoria, in the 1950's.

Literature

Dalene Marais, Maggie Laubser, Her Paintings Drawings and Graphics, Perskor, 1994, page 350, catalogue number 1528.