Footnotes

• Provenance:
  Acquired from the Wolpe Gallery, Cape Town, by the current owner.
  
  In 1931 Stern spent three months painting on Madeira, an island she had encountered briefly on her sea voyages, though when she arrived on the island she found the culture oppressive and the local women joyless. She observed:
  
  "Only the women look depressed, the women are like cows - they work in the fields - in the houses - they drag heavy loads...."
  
  Many of her Madiera paintings are anguished; using harsh, pure colour and turbulent rhythym. It is suggested by Arnold that this was due to her troubled marriage and that she was sexually frustrated. Her Portuguese lover, Hippolyto Raposo, had been her grand passion and, on Madeira she must have remembered his magnetism.
  
  Stern made a preparatory sketch for this gouache, which is illustrated in S. Albert (ed.) Journeys to the Interior: Unseen works by Irma Stern 1929-1939 (Cape Town, 2006), fig. 23d.
  
  We are grateful to Marion Arnold for her assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.

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Category: Fine Art / South African Art

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