Notes

In 1919 Maggie Laubser moved to Belgium for about 15 months staying in and around Antwerp. Here she frequently travelled by train to rural areas where she painted en plein air the various landscapes – villages, flat farmlands, hilly countryside, haystacks, harvesters and trees. The present lot is one of the over 50 oil paintings she produced while in Belgium.¹ During this time, Laubser was introduced to the works of Vincent van Gogh, and she felt an affinity for both his skill as an artist and his spirituality (as she was also a very spiritual person). The influence of van Gogh on Laubser is clear in this painting with its loose brush strokes and light, bright colours. It demonstrates Laubser’s move away from the traditional, formal training she received at the Slade School of Art in London, towards the more expressionistic style she would soon come to adopt and for which she is best known.

^1. Muller Ballot (2016) Maggie Laubser: A Window on Always Light, Stellenbosch: Sun Press, page 58.

Provenance

Cato de Waal, Stellenbosch, 1942.

Die Kunskamer, Cape Town, 25 February, 1975.

Dr Matthys Johannes Strydom Family Collection.

Exhibited

Carnegie Library, Stellenbosch, 1942, cat. no. 43.

Argus Gallery, Cape Town, 1942, cat. no. 43.

South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Maggie Laubser, 1969, cat. no. 6.

Die Kunskamer, Cape Town, 1975.

Literature

Johan van Rooyen (1974) Maggie Laubser, Cape Town: C. Struik Publishers, illustrated in black and white as figure 11 on page 32.

Dalene Marais (1994) Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics, Johannesburg and Cape Town: Perskor, illustrated in black and white on page 119, cat. no. 161.