Notes

Maggie Laubser is particularly recognized for her esoteric interpretations of reality. Laubser had no interest in imitating others, but drew her first impressions when approaching a new work:

‘I see the subject matter, and the first thing that strikes me is the colour, then the shape or form — very simple, but very definite; then the harmony and the lines. I study it closely until I am completely familiar with all aspects of the subject matter. Once I have my impression, I am free to paint. I must be free to paint; I feel confined if I constantly have to look at the subject, I lose my own interpretation’.¹

Cape Dutch House with Trees (lot 1) was painted upon the artist’s return from Germany to her family home at Oortmanspost, in Malmesbury towards the end of 1924. It is interesting to note that the same homestead had been painted two years prior (Marais, cat. no. 308), before the artist’s sojourns to Germany. This may indicate that the homestead depicted could be the Laubser family home, as it is the only building identifiably repeated at Oortmanspost.

By the time Birds on Rocks; Sea with Boats in Background (lot 2) was painted, Laubser was exhibiting extensively in South Africa and was beginning to enjoy public recognition. Critics, too, had softened to her German Expressionist style and she was beginning to make a commercial success of her work. Laubser made excursions to various parts of the country of which Langebaan, where this work was likely inspired, was one. During this stage of the artist’s production the landscape/seascape seem to occupy an important position in the artist’s oeuvre, as they become the playground upon which various activities of figures, birds, and boats are animated seemingly in mid-action.

^1. Huisgenoot, 18 August 1939:37
^2. Dalene Marais (1994) Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics. Johannesburg and Cape Town: Perskor.

Literature

Dalene Marais (1994) Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics, Johannesburg and Cape Town: Perskor, illustrated in black and white on page 275, cat. no. 1072.