Footnotes

• The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by Dr. Sibylle Groß.
  
  Provenance
  Wilhelm Kirschner Collection, Berlin (a gift from the artist).
  Siegbert Eick Collection, Cape Town (by early 1930s).
  Walter Katz Collection, Cape Town (acquired from the above between 1940 – 1950).
  Private collection, UK (by descent from the above).
  
  The former owner of the present work and two further lots (lots 66 & 67) by Lesser Ury in the sale was the legendary German émigré Siegbert Eick. An art and book dealer, Eick escaped to South Africa in the early 1930s to flee from the rise of National Socialism with his partner, a window-dresser, Rudolf von Frieling. Eick was a prominent figure among the intellectual and bohemian communities of Cape Town in the 1930s and 40s, and part of the renowned Expressionist artist Irma Stern's close friendship circle. Stern painted two portraits of Eick in 1942 and 1947, one in exchange for a Dürer print that was sold from her estate after her death. Eick's uncompromising lifestyle and clear charisma captivated Stern, forging a friendship which has been attributed to their shared cosmopolitan German Jewish heritage as well as their interest in collecting eclectic objects and artworks (S. Klopper, Irma Stern, Are You Still Alive? Stern's Life and Art seen through her letters to Richard and Freda Feldman, 1934 – 1966, Cape Town, 2017, p. 39).