IRMA STERN | VIEW ACROSS VINEYARD

Sotheby’s, Stephan Welz & Co., Johannesburg, 8 November 1999, Lot 537, titled A View of a Valley, A Vineyard in the Foreground

Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Johannesburg, Standard Bank Gallery, Irma Stern: Expressions of a Journey, 25 September-29 November 2003, illustrated in colour in the catalogue p. 157

View Across Vineyard is an outstanding example of Stern's uniquely vital and colourful interpretation of the natural landscape in South Africa. Painted in 1940, it is particularly fine example the views of the Cape which she was to paint during the Second World War when she was unable to travel back to Europe. It offers an insight into her very personal identification with the landscape and the particular geographical features that would appear frequently in her paintings during the late 1930s and 1940s. The bold and energetic application of paint has created a rich impasto on the surface of the canvas which animates the lush and exotic colours, whilst the play of light adds a chimerical quality to the scene. Stern's representation of the landscape is mediated by her unique and visionary response to her natural surroundings.