Notes

The proceeds from the sale of this lot will benefit the Walter Battiss Art Museum, Somerset East.

Walter Battiss was born in Somerset East on 6 January 1906. The museum that bears his name was opened on 24 October 1981 in the two storeyed, verandaed former British officers’ mess that the Battiss family ran as a private ‘temperance’ hotel from 1914 to 1917. It was founded with the artist’s personal collection and is one of the two largest Battiss collections in the country (the other being at the Wits Art Museum). Murray Schoonraad, Battiss’s friend and former pupil, assisted in gathering and curating the works for the museum, which include numerous works donated by artist friends and colleagues, including Maud Sumner. The donation from Sumner was announced in the local newspaper, the Somerset Budget, on 1 March 1984.