Get some rare Van Wouws

SCULPTURES: ONE OF ONLY SIX CASTINGS AND A LAUBSER TO BE SOLD

One of only six castings of a sculpture by Anton van Wouw, widely regarded as SA’s first major sculptor, goes on auction by Stephan Welz & Co. on August 26 and 27 at Killarney Country Club.

Of the castings of the bronze sculpture, De Vogelaar (the bird catcher), believed to exist, the work on auction is only one of two in private ownership. The remaining four are in large, permanent collections.

The estimated price R800 000 to R1, 2 million.

The sculpture, depicting a street urchin in cap and clogs, is among several rare fine art lots to be auctioned with two paintings, one by Maggie Laubser and another

is by Walter Battiss, on auction for the first time.

The sculpture can be viewed today at the Pretoria Arts Association.

Born in the Netherlands, Van Wouw crafted the sculpture as a young man in Holland before moving to South Africa and settling in Pretoria at the age of 28.

The urchin appears to be whistling to attract small birds to land on a thin, glue-covered stick in his upraised hand. The stick was lost at some point in the last 100 years, but this fate has befallen at least one other casting held in a permanent collection.

De Vogelaar is Van Wouw’s earliest known bronze sculpture and hints at the fine details for which the sculptor was to become renowned. “Van Wouw is essentially a painstaking artist,” says art critic MJ Cohen. “He scores by attention to detail. And whenever one sees his work it is the detailed finish which strikes one. ” Maggie Laubser painted this work soon after her return from Europe where she was greatly influenced by the Expressionists and was attempting to use what she had learned in a South African context. Never before offered on auction, the painting has an estimated price of R300 000 to R500 000.

The oil on board work in lively and sensitive colours is painted on both sides, with Still Life With Poinsettias on the recto side and Study For Still Life With Tulips on the verso. The Tulips were not known to be present until the owner took the work to be reframed in the ’70s. Laubser presented the painting as a wedding gift to the owner’s grandparents in 1933.

Also on auction for the first time is Fruit and Flower Sellers, Grande Comoro, an oil on canvas by Walter Battiss. One of South Africa’s foremost abstract painters and the creator of the quirky Fook Island, Battiss painted the work during travels to various African islands.

The work is distinctive because of his use of a palette knife to layer thick, vibrant colours onto the canvas, which he then scratched into to draw the images

Its estimated price is R500 000 to R700 000.