Irma Stern; South African 1894-1966; Zanzibar Harbour Scene
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Note : Stern's diverse output includes a large body of work occupied with the traditions and labours of diverse seafaring cultures. Stern produced many studies of coastal hamlets and fisher folk in France, Madeira, Spain, South Africa and Zanzibar. Ranging in ambition from large oils and lyrical gouaches to descriptive works on paper, these harbour scenes are an important part of her output. They not only detail her itineraries but provide an insight into the way colour functioned as architectural form and emotional tone in her mature works. This impressive harbour scene is linked to Stern's second trip to Zanzibar in 1945. Stern first visited "the island of spices" in 1939. She detailed her experiences in Zanzibar in an artist's book published in 1948. Early into her narrative, Stern describes dhows from Arabia and Persia arriving at Zanzibar loaded with coffee, spices, rugs, Eastern foods, silks from India and China, shawls from Kashmir (Pakistan), and brocades and jewels from Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Her book does not include any maritime scenes, although Stern's portrait Arab Fisherman reprinted on page 28 gestures to the importance of the sea in its backdrop. A number of masterful gouaches from Stern's 1945 trip have appeared at market. Some depict old dhows in Stone Town's harbour, and others portray boats pulled up onto Zanzibar's tropical beaches, as here. Oils in this style are rare. Much like her celebrated Zanzibar portraits, Stern's boat studies reveal her use of a more descriptive form of expressionism in which colour plays a dominant role. An admirer of Stern, Matthys Strydom was also a keen fisherman and amateur photographer who travelled as far as Bazaruto Island in northern Mozambique with his neighbour. A snapshot from this adventure was awarded a prize at the Johannesburg Salon.
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