Strauss & co - 8 October 2009, Cape Town

176 310 Stephanus Johannes Paulus (Fanie) Eloff S OUTH A FRICAN 1885-1947 Athlete Balancing on his Hands signed, foundry mark C Valsuani Cire Perdue bronze, with dark green patina height: 103cm R80 000 – 100 000 PROVENANCE Acquired from the artist’s Estate by the current owner’s father, Pretoria, 1947 LITERATURE Our Art , Vol 2 , SA Association for the Advancement of Knowledge and Culture, Pretoria, 1961, pages 115 and 116 “Fanie Eloff was the grandson of President Paul Kruger. Pierneef and Gerard Moerdyk were Fanie’s school-fellows at the old Staatsmodelskool in Pretoria… He spent the greater part of his creative life in Paris, returning to South Africa in 1941. After his death in 1947, all the sculptures he had left behind in his Paris studio were shipped out here and a large memorial exhibition was held in Pretoria under the auspices of the South African Academy for Arts and Science… Eloff wished to maintain the principle of art for art’s sake, of the sovereignty of the artist, and of homage due to all creative work… It is the artist’s studies of figures in motion, executed in bronze, which, above all others, bear the unmistakable stamp of his individual style. All his figures are characterized by spontaneity of expression, and Eloff achieves a delightful significance of form in which the static quality of his medium is completely forgotten.” Dr FCL Bosman Left Right