Strauss & co - 26 September 2011, Cape Town

153 exoticism is conveyed through vibrant colour interactions. 4 The superbly carved wooden frame is embellished with flowers and foliage. The purpose of these symbols, originally designed as door ornamentation, is to bring good fortune to the household as Stern explains in her book. Containing vestiges of Indian decoration, they confirm Stern’s great admiration for the Arab and Asian cultures she encountered on Africa’s east coast. The painting has an excellent provenance, having been held in the private collection of Mr and Mrs Louis Schachat and since in another private collection. It was included in the commemorative exhibition, Homage to Irma Stern 1894 - 1966, presented by the Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation for the Cape Arts Festival in 1968 at the Rembrandt Art Centre in Johannesburg, the Pretoria Art Museum and the South African National Gallery. Two Arabs ably demonstrates Irma Stern’s unique ability to fuse her passion for African themes with European traditions of painting that can be traced back to the greatest nineteenth- and twentieth- century masters The present lot from Eugène Delacroix through Vincent Van Gogh to the German Expressionists with whom she was closely associated in her formative years. 1. IrmaS tern, Zanzibar , J L Van Schaik Limited, Pretoria, 1948, page 5. 2. Neville Dubow, draft of opening speech, presented at the Irma Stern Museum in December 1982, University of Cape Town’s Manuscripts and Archives Department. The exhibition was on view from 10 December 1982 – 30 January 1983. 3. IrmaS tern, Zanzibar , ibid, page 55. 4. MarionA rnold, Irma Stern: A Feast for the Eye, Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation and Fernwood Press, Cape Town, 1995, page 102.