Irma Stern (South African, 1894-1966)
Still life with a vase of Gladioli on a draped table
signed and dated 'Irma Stern 1949' (lower right)
oil on canvas
86.3 x 68.6cm (34 x 27in).
signed and dated 'Irma Stern 1949' (lower right)
oil on canvas
86.3 x 68.6cm (34 x 27in).
Sold for
£535,200
inc. premium
Footnotes
- PROVENANCE:
Purchased at the Wolpe Gallery, Cape Town circa 1960
Thence by direct descent to the current owner
"Irma's love of the flowers she cultivated in her garden found direct expression in her large still lifes, all exuberant with a vital painterly energy. In some her flowers are hardly contained by the edge of the frame...In her still lifes, Stern eloquently integrated her exterior and interior worlds."
On meeting Jacob Epstein on her visit to London in 1927, he remarked: "At last a painter who can paint comes to London. Do you know that nobody living can paint flowers better than you can - that the Renoir roses I just saw look like paper against your flowers."
A similar work, Still Life of gladioli and a musical instrument, 1941, sold in these rooms on 10 September 2008.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
H. Smuts, At home with Irma Stern, (Cape Town, 2007)
Category: Fine Art / South African Art
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