Irma Stern

Acquired from Roza van Gelderen, circa 1950

Thence by direct descent to the current owner

Johannesburg, Bothner's Galleries, Irma Stern, 25 April - 8 May 1946, cat. 6 titled In the Harem

"A woman may not enter a mosque to pray to Allah. They live in seclusion in a harem, in rooms on the top floor of the house. In these rooms are a multitude of Arab chests filled with their dowries of lovely old eastern silks with heavy gold fringes, trousers ruched at the ankles with the frills falling over their feet. Heavy perfumes hang in the air — expensive, penetrating Eastern perfumes. The rooms are laid out with mats over old dark red tiles - Persian mats and straw matting in vivid array." (Irma Stern, Zanzibar, 1948)

The subject of Irma Stern’s Lady of the Harem, described in a 1946 news article as ‘blousy’, centres this jewel-like canvas. The subject and geographic origin of this work engage the viewer in a multi-layered history.

Stone Town in Zanzibar was the site of one of the most robust open slave markets until it was shuttered by the British in 1873. Slavery was not abolished however until 1909.

The British perception of the "benevolence" of Zanzibari slave owners was a deeply entrenched belief. This resulted in an alarmingly sluggish response from the Zanzibar Islands to comply with the demands for abolition. Marek Pawelczak, whose academic focus has centred on Africa, east Africa and Indian Ocean history, has argued that this apathy of perception has lingered well into the 21st century and redress is long overdue. This writer argues that Stern was aware of the true face beneath the surface of the place of Zanzibar. Stern’s choice to focus on these women captures their history, giving them agency at a time when they had none. In her travel book Zanzibar, Stern refers to a woman in the Harem as ‘looking so ordinary’ [despite her history]. Moreso, this history of “benignity” embeds the portrayal of slavery as a domestic trope, removing the harsh reality of the matter. The women who remained in these post-abolition domestic settings had few opportunities to change their circumstances due to their class status and financial precarity.

Harems and the communities of women they housed gave additional credence to the adornment rituals therein. The art of henna, a practice introduced in the 17th century, was a measured and ordered adornment. Zanzibari designs are dominated by floral motifs, often lotus blooms or Yungi-yungi, emphasised in this work by choice of the carved lower moulding of the frame. The adornment process could take three days and last a month. The undersides of a woman’s feet took three nights to acquire, a thick paste was applied and wrapped with leaves, and the recipient was also expected to lie entirely still on these nights not to disturb the bindings. The same paste was applied to her finger and toenails, staining them a bright red. The intricate patterns painted on forearms and feet were drawn by the enslaved harem women, who, while allowed to apply the same to themselves and other women of similar stature, were also expected to fan the women of status throughout the heat of the Zanzibar days and nights.

The subject of Stern’s painting is a lower-caste member of a Zanzibari harem. Her brightly coloured trousers are highlighted with a triangular patch of light catching her left knee, hand, and foot. The single gold bracelet on her left wrist and ankle can be viewed in a counterpart painting shown on the same 1946 exhibition (no. 15, In the Harem, later broadcast on the BBC in 1948 as one of their artworks of the month). The subject of the other In the Harem has double bands of gold on her wrists and ankles. Gold and the acquisition of gold adornments were one of the few ways in which a woman could extract herself from domestic slavery. Stern’s subtle rendering of the lady’s henna patterning on her left-hand echoes warm tonal splashes on the edge of her right hand. Similarly, her face hints at the appropriate patterning.

This dynamic composition comprises six triangles. By drawing on her art training, this structure allows Stern to formally explore these richly patterned surfaces without losing herself to abstraction. Included on Stern’s 1946 exhibition at Bothner’s gallery as catalogue number 6, this painting was acquired by collectors known to Stern. It remained as such until presented to the public once again in these Sotheby’s salesrooms in London.

-Phillippa Duncan, MA (Cultural Leadership)

References:

Curtin, Patricia Romero. Possible Sources for the Origin of Gold as an Economic and Social Vehicle for Women in Lamu (Kenya). Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 57, No. 3, 1987, p. 364- 376.

Eastman, Carol. An Ethnography of Swahili Expressive Culture. Research in African Literatures, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1984, p. 313-340.

Fair L. (1998). Dressing Up: Clothing, Class And Gender In Post-Abolition Zanzibar. The Journal of African History. 39(1):63-94.

Stern, I. (1948). Zanzibar, Pretoria: J.L. Van Schaik.

We wish to thank Phillippa Duncan (Vault Research) for their invaluable assistance in cataloguing and researching this lot.