Paintings by leading local artists on listing
HAUNTED Landscape, a painting by Peter Clarke, signed and dated 24.2.1978, is expected to fetch top price at the Bernardi fine art, jewellery, numismatics and collectables auction in Pretoria on Monday.
A number of paintings were in the five-figure price bracket, notably Irma Stern’s charcoal portrait Swazi Girl, signed and dated 1935 and accompanied by a piece of purple fabric inscribed with “Swazi Girl, Irma Stern, a gift from granny Steffi Bendermann BB, 11.11.1986, Sea Point, Cape Town”.
The inscribed fabric was attached to the original frame and was detached when the artwork was reframed by the current owner (estimated price R60,000-R90,000).
Other artworks in this price range include Walter Battiss’s silkscreen in colours, Fook Island Coins, signed in pencil and inscribed with the title and numbered 41/45 (R20,000R30,000) and Hanneke Benade’s signed pastel-on-paper portrait Arch Angel.
This work was commissioned by the owner and, according to her, depicts her sibling as well as the artist’s sister (R20,000R30,000). Gergoire Boonzaier’s oil on canvas Flowers in Vase, signed and dated 1935, is also in this category (R30,000R50,000), as is Adriaan Boshoff’s oil on canvas on board, Workers in the Boat Yard (R18,000-R25,000).
Errol Boyley’s oil on board, Sandflats Knysna — Low Tide, signed and inscribed with the title on the reverse of the frame, has an estimated price of R18,000-R25,000.
Carl Büchner’s signed oil on canvas on board, White Clown (R25,000- R40,000), is also on auction, as are Bettie CilliersBarnard’s oil on canvas, Studio Still Life with Decanter and Wine Glasses on a Tray, signed and dated 1943 on the reverse (R10,000-R20,000); Frans Claerhout’s signed oil on board, Returning with the Harvest (R20,000-R30,000); Gabriel de Jongh’s signed oil on canvas, A Distant View of a Farm Across the River, Beneath Mountains (R10,000-R20,000); Domsaitis Pranas’s oil on board, Karoo Landscape with Workers’ Cottages, signed with the artist’s monogram; Zakkie Eloff’s oil on board, The Warder, signed and dated 1956 (R20,000-R30,000); and Cecil Higgs’s oil-on-canvas seascape, Storm in the Bay with Distant Mountains, which is signed and dated 1953 (R20,000-R30,000).
Other works attracting attention are Adolph Jentsch’s watercolour, Sudwest Afrika, signed with the artist’s initials and dated 1956, (R8,000-R15,000); Anton Karstel’s oil on canvas, La Mer, dated 2012 on the reverse, (R30,000-R50,000); Otto Klar’s signed oil on board, West Coast Fishermen’s Cottages with Figures and Boat (R20,000- R30,000); Eli Kobeli’s signed oil on board, Township Musicians, (R1,000-R3,000); Dzunisani Maluleke’s pair of woodblock prints, Swihundla and Ndhuti, each signed in pencil and inscribed with the title (R3,000R6,000); Wessel Marais’s oil on canvas on board, Serenading Cape Minstrel, signed and dated 1996 (R12,000-R18,000); and Erich Mayer’s oil on card, Xhosa Woman, signed and dated 1939 (R10,000-R15,000).
Among other well-known names are Dirk Meerkotter’s oil on canvas on board, Floating Harbour (R8,000-R15,000); Carl Meyer’s oil on canvas, Padwerkers, signed with the artist’s initials WM and dated 2004 (R40,000-R60,000), Louis Nel’s, signed oil on canvas, At Journey’s End (R15,000R20,000); Maureen Quin’s bronze, On the Beach, signed and dated 1978 (R18,000R25,000); Nicholas Roos’s watercolour on paper, Namibian Landscape, signed and dated 1988 (R10,000-R20,000) and Alexandra Ross’s diptych, oil on canvas, Venus and Mars, signed, inscribed with the title and dated 2012 (R20,000-R30,000).
Other works of note on auction include Carlo Sdoya’s signed impasto oil on board, Launching the Boat at Daybreak (R6,000-R10,000) and Diane Victor’s charcoal on paper, Sleeping Figure, signed with a dedication and dated December 2001 (R18,000-R25,000).