Strauss & co - 7 November 2011, Johannesburg

111 234 Cathcart William METHVEN south african 1849–1925 A Hopeless Dawn signed and dated 1908 oil on canvas 75 by 126 cm R120 000 – 160 000 literature Nigel Hughes, Views in Colonial Natal , Craighall, 2005, page 56 and 57, illustrated in colour. ‘On occasion Methven painted a scene after the event and this commemorates a shipwreck in the breakers, possibly that of the Cape wooden dandy Harry Mundahl which came ashore at daybreak on 31 January 1901, just north of Port Shepstone. Carrying sugar at the time of her wreck – in which no lives were lost – the Harry Mundahl of 122 tons was owned by the Port Shepstone Shipping Company.’