Fine artworks up for grabs

PIERNEEF’S A VIEW THROUGH THE TREES GOES UNDER THE HAMMER

Notable South African artworks, with Pierneef’s A View Through The Trees as a centrepiece, go on auction by Stephan Welz & Co in Sandton on Tuesday and Wednesday. Estimated to fetch between R500 000 and R600 000, the signed oil on board painting captures the natural beauty of the landscape and reflects the prominent role of trees in the renowned landscape painter’s works.

Trees had specific symbolic meanings to Pierneef (1886-1957), serving to represent particular geographic areas and describing the character and atmosphere of a particular area, says Stephan Welz & Co. In this work, measuring 54-by-37.5cm, trees in the foreground form a frame through which the grassland landscape is seen in comparative perspective. The work will be among some 160 artworks at the auction.

Among them is the unique Fanie Eloff bronze sculpture, Sitting Woman. Only one bronze was cast of this artwork, which was inspired by the Rhine maiden of Wagner’s opera, Der Ring des Nibelungen. The work is signed and cast with the foundry mark, and is estimated to fetch between R160 000 and R240 000.

A grandson of Paul Kruger, former president of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek, Eloff (1885 – 1947), received his early education in South Africa. In 1908, he enrolled at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, where he completed a geology degree but also realised his passion for art, changing the focus of his studies to include anatomy to gain a greater understanding of the human form.

Another notable work on auction will be an Anton Smit stonecast, The Prophet, estimated to fetch between R240 000 and R290 000. The work has a height of 85cm and is signed and numbered.

Smit began his career as a self-taught artist and achieved his breakthrough in 1979, when he was awarded first place in the Sasol New Signatures competition. His work has been exhibited locally and internationally.

Smit portrays and embodies a range of spiritual and mystical ideas around existence and transcendence, notes Stephan Welz & Co.

“Creation continues incessantly through the medium of man,” says Smit. “Man himself, then, is the mouthpiece, medium and meaning all in one. His challenge as an artist is to create himself over and over again, finding new connotations and concepts in given shapes, figures and faces.”

Much like the artist at work in his studio, the stylised and inscrutable face of The Prophet appears to look both inwards and outwards with a slight smile.

The Prophet looks inwards onto an imaginative and symbolic realm of inspiration, and outwards onto the material world embodied by the sculpture.

The Stephan Welz & Co Fine Art and Design Auction on the fourth floor, South Tower, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Pre-auction viewing, which began yesterday and ends on Monday, is open to the public at no charge.