Footnotes

• PROVENANCE:
  The artist's sister, Katherine Lock
  Thence by direct descent to the current owner
  
  Freida Lock departed South Africa and settled in Portugal in the early 1950s. A coastal town west of Lisbon, Cascais was a humble fishing village before its transformation into a royal resort in the nineteenth century. The town housed many exiled royal families during World War II as a result of Portugal's neutrality, and its cosmopolitan air, lush vegetation and purity of light must have proved an inspiration to Lock. In this painting, Lock further explores the tone and textures of zinc-white through the strong sunlight beating down on the water in the fountain as well as reflecting off the facades of a nearby church and distant buildings. Meanwhile, her impressionistic brushwork captures a simultaneous sense of spontaneity and timelessness: a sunny day and a fleeting breeze resonating across the surfaces of a Portuguese town.
  
  Tragically, Lock died, penniless, at the Italian Hospital in London in 1962. As Esmé Berman relates, her funeral fees were covered by donations of her paintings by old friends.
  
  BIBLIOGRAPHY:
  E. Berman, Art and Artists of South Africa, (Cape Town, 1983), p.268
  

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Category: Fine Art / South African Art

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