Notes

Landscapes and birds were beloved imagery for Maggie Laubser. They were part of a handful of established themes that she returned to over and over again throughout her artistic career. Often these motifs – especially the landscapes – were imagined or remembered, referenced from her experiences on her family’s farms, Bloublommetjieskloof and Oortmanspost, both in the Malmesbury district, and her later life in Strand, near the sea. The present lot, a stylised landscape, features two geese set against a sketchy, rolling countryside with atmospherically blue mountains in the distance. Laubser has delineated beautifully the farmlands through her use of colour blocking: fields of pea green, teal, and dusty rose. The foreground also includes the suggestion of a figure dressed in black walking away from a small blue house – perhaps a farmworker and his home. She has further created depth through the addition of a small homestead in the distance – little white houses nestled between large trees – at the top right of the painting. Laubser explained her affinity for space and stylisation: ‘This love of space makes me feel free and unshackled. It gives me vision and this is why I could never feel bound to the restrictions of photographic impressions in my work.’¹

1.  Muller Ballot (2016) Maggie Laubser: A Window on Always Light, Stellenbosch: Sun Press, page 293. 

Provenance

The Tasso Foundation Collection of Important South African Art assembled by the Late Giulio Bertrand of Morgenster Estate.