Notes

Jane Tully Heath and her husband, Jack, honed their artistic skills at the Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art in London before relocating to South Africa in 1946. Their training, particularly in London, immersed them in the realm of the esteemed British Modernists. While Jane's art maintained its roots in this British, vanguard tradition, her work in South Africa evolved, focusing on meticulous design and keen observation rather than abstract theory.

Carola Brotherton, who trained under Jack and Jane at the University of Natal, became particularly close with Jane, and with their old, customized Land Rover, made numerous sketching and painting trips into the then wilder parts of Natal. Neither artist moved too far away from natural representation, but on occasion each pursued a gentle, selective and decorative abstraction. The present lot reflects the artist's mood: autumn leaves captured through overlapping geometric shapes of earthy hues, arranged in a flat, sophisticated pattern reminiscent of the Carola Brotherton's Midlands Landscape (lot 251), previously on auction in 2017.

Exhibited

South African Association of Arts, Pretoria, Jane Heath and Carola Brotherton, 14 August 1972 to 26 August 1972.

Literature

Brendan Bell and Bryony Clark (eds) (2016) Building History: Drawings and prints of historic buildings in Pietermaritzburg created during the 1960s by Carola Brotherton, Pietermaritzburg: Tatham Art Gallery, illustrated in colour on page 12.