Lot 35*
After Anton van Wouw (South African, 1862-1945)'The Dagga Smoker' 17.5 x 48 x 19cm (6 7/8 x 18 7/8 x 7 1/2in).
12 September 2018, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £5,625 inc. premium
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Shipping (UK)
After Anton van Wouw (South African, 1862-1945)
'The Dagga Smoker'
signed 'A. VAN WOUW./ S.A. Joh-burg' (to the right of the figure's right foot)
bronze
17.5 x 48 x 19cm (6 7/8 x 18 7/8 x 7 1/2in).
signed 'A. VAN WOUW./ S.A. Joh-burg' (to the right of the figure's right foot)
bronze
17.5 x 48 x 19cm (6 7/8 x 18 7/8 x 7 1/2in).
Footnotes
Provenance
A private collection, USA.
This small sculpture depicts a man crouched on the floor to smoke dagga (marijuana, a kind of hemp that grows wild in South Africa). He holds a calabash filled with water in his right hand and a pipe in his left, balancing on his forearms and knees. The awkward posture offers van Wouw an opportunity to model contorted musculature and show off his knowledge of human anatomy.
The artist started work on the figure in 1907; it would take a further nine months to complete. The sculpture is characterised by a juxtaposition of contrasts: the smooth skin of the smoker's exposed back with the coarse hair on his head, the polished calabash with the wrinkled fingers. The composition as a whole is made up of a series of closed and open triangles.
The political cartoonist D.C. Boonzaier (father of the painter Gregoire Boonzaier) visited van Wouw's studio in July 1914. He noted that the artist regarded The Dagga Smoker as "one of the best things he has done".
The sculpture was equally regarded by van Wouw's patrons. It was so popular that casts of the subject were made in South Africa after the artist's death, of which the present lot is one.
Bibliography
A.E. Duffey, Anton van Wouw: the Smaller Works, (Pretoria, 2008), pp.61-2.