Irma Stern (South African, 1894-1966) Magnolias (Framed)
Herkunft : [Timeline chronologique]
1945-01-01 | The unusual striped textile that is folded beneath the vase would seem to represent a woven palm-leaf mat, most likely acquired during Stern's Zanzibar trip the year before in 1945
1951-01-01 | Family tradition holds that the present work was purchased circa 1951 in an extraordinary and undocumented exhibition at the home of the purchaser in what was then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, having been exhibited in the Netherlands at some time before that
1951-01-01 | Alternatively, Stern's cashbook for December 1951 records a payment of L124.19.6 for an unspecified still life sold via a M
[Propriété non datée]
- Acquired directly from the artist by Gina Schnabl; By direct descent to the current owner; A private collection
- Exhibited Paris, Galerie de Beaux Arts, 1947
- Rotterdam, Kunstaal van Eeck
- Johannesburg, Gainsborough Galleries, 1957
- Christopher Peter, the former Director of the Irma Stern Museum, wrote enthusiastically of the artist's still lifes: 'For me, Irma's Still Life works immediately evoke her studio!
- Her canary yellow studio!' ( Life Force, exh. cat., 2018: pp. 24-25)
- The brilliant yellow background of this and other paintings takes one imaginatively to the very site of her creativity
- The Chinese stoneware vase in the painting recalls examples held in her collection (Irma Stern Trust Collection, nos. 530 and 534)
- Although not identical to that depicted in the present work, several examples survive in her museum, while others feature both in her paintings and in the exhibition installations that her companion Dudley Welch designed for her at this time
- The painting returned to South Africa when the owners relocated to Johannesburg in 1988
- Although there is not direct confirmation of this narrative in the Irma Stern archives, it is certainly plausible
- Two records from 1951 in the archive could indicate the present work
- In April that year, Stern exhibited Magnolias listed as no. 13) at the Gainsborough Galleries, Johannesburg, at the considerable price of 175 guineas
- The exhibition catalogue provides neither the date nor the dimensions of the painting
- Stern's cashbook for May 1951 records 'Johburg Nr.13 – difference in (words illegible) L117.5'
- No buyer's name is recorded and the difference between this price and the catalogue price seems to indicate that an earlier deposit had been paid: the present work was paid for by the owner's family in instalments
- It is possible that the Salisbury exhibition staged by the present owner's family was negotiated by the Gainsborough Galleries
- Jacobsohn to a client in Rhodesia
- Her list of expenses of the same time records a 'Commission on picture sold to Rhodesia' of L18 which, at approximately 10% would indicate a very substantial picture
- These records seem to confirm the existence of the Salisbury exhibition but may, of course, refer to a separate painting
- Both entries would allow for the painting to have been exhibited in the Netherlands, as family tradition believes, for Irma Stern had a large show at the Kunstzaal Van Eeck in Rotterdam in 1948
- This exhibition comprised of most of the work from the prestigious exhibition at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in October 1947 which, according to the catalogue, included a work titled Magnolias (no. 16)
- While the installation photographs of this exhibition held in the Irma Stern archive show less than half of the oil paintings known to be on view and no picture of magnolias is apparent, it is probable that the present lot was exhibited in both Paris and the Netherlands
- We are grateful to Michael Godby for his compilation of the above footnote
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