Bonhams 1793 : Maggie (Maria Magdalena) Laubser (South African, 1886-1973) 'Landscape with Homestead'

PROVENANCE:
Mr Gerhard de Leeuw, Pretoria
Dr H. L Israel, Bloemfontein
The Collection of Roger Brett Kebble
Sale, Graham's Johannesburg, 7 May 2009, lot 44
A private collection

EXHIBITED:
University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, Works from the Collection of Mr Louis Israel, 17-21 June 1976

LITERATURE:
D. Marais, Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics, (Cape Town and Johannesburg), cat. no. 1424, illustrated p. 333

'It was so beautiful, my land the Free State, the colours - I painted it all day long.' (Liebenberg, 1964:5)

During the 1940s, Laubser began to develop her love of landscape painting by turning to areas outside of the Boland farming area in which she grew up as a child for inspiration. The Free State, Natal and the Transvaal, as well as the coastal scenes around her new home at the Strand all began to feature in the artist's works.

In 1946 Laubser travelled to the Orange Free State to the area around Ficksburg. Taking great inspiration from her sojourn here, the current lot was probably painted on a return visit to Ficksburg during the mind-1950s.

Correspondence from the Board of Executors at the time of Laubser's father's liquidation in 1925 indicates that he owned another farm, Malala Ring in the Vryburg area of what was the the Orange Free State. Although there are no records stating for certain that Laubser ever visited this farm, it is likely that this personal connection with the Orange Free State was one reason for the inspiration which she drew from its landscape.