Strauss & co - 26 September 2011, Cape Town

168 312 Alexis PRELLER SOUTH AFRICAN 1911-1975 Boys Bathing signed and dated ‘36 oil on canvas 69,5 by 84,5cm R800 000 – 1 200 000 1936 was a good year for Alexis Preller – one of his figurative paintings had been selected for the Empire Exhibition hosted by the British Government at Milner Park in Johannesburg. And at only 25 years old, he painted Boys Bathing. In 1934, Preller had set off for London, armed with a letter of introduction from architect, Norman Eaton, to JH Pierneef who was in London for two years for the commission to complete seven murals for South Africa House and who was to become Preller’s “guardian angel” . 1 Acting on the older artist’s advice, Preller enrolled in the Westminster School of Art. The distinguished British artist, Mark Gertler, was teaching there and made a great impression on the young artist. Preller enjoyed the theatre and strolling through the famous streets and parks. He was able to visit museums and galleries, where he was drawn to paintings by Van Gogh and Gauguin in particular. On return to South Africa his first exhibition was greeted with encouragement by critic Matthys Bokhorst who was later to take up the post of Director of the South African National Gallery. Preller met Christi Truter in 1935, then an aspiring ballet dancer, and was captivated not only by his youthful good looks but by an emotional and artistic empathy which they shared. It was Christi who modelled for this painting in which Preller captures the epitome of carefree youth and beauty. The finely honed figure of the dancer appears to be sculpted in strongly defined planes of light and shade accentuated by the bright sunlight. Warm flesh tones advance against the complementary receding blue in a tightly cropped composition which almost seems to place the bathers in real space. The solidly constructed forms employed here stand in stark contrast to the sketchy linear approach of other works that Preller produced at this time. 2 1. Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, Shelf Publishing, 2009, page 24. 2. Ibid page 29.