Strauss & co - 21 October 2013, Cape Town

there is a definite shift from the descriptive picturesque interpretation practised up until this time, to a more abstracted decorative style, in which there is a simplification of form, reduction of detail and intensification of hues ... Laubser’s development while in Belgium, but more particularly in Italy, towards a stronger and more high- keyed palette should be understood within the context of her ideas and beliefs. For her, very clear and recognizable forms were to be found in nature ... This mode of perceiving finds its parallel in her painting for, by using stronger, purer colours and greater contrasts of hues in large defined areas, there is an intensification and clarity of shape. By her use of colour, therefore, she expressed her consciousness of structure rather than superficial appearance in nature thus creating a work of clarity and order, paralleling the “perfection of creation”. The landscape painting is undoubtedly a key painting in the development of South African modernism. Beneath a shimmering lilac sky, the dazzling ultramarine sea is bracketed by an olive green cypress and the gnarled orange and mauve trunk and teal leaves of what is probably an olive tree. These motifs are typical of her Italian paintings produced while living and painting near Lake Garda in 1920 and on her return to Italy in 1921. While her brilliant treatment of the subject evinces the vividness of observed reality, Laubser may well have worked from her sketches to paint this on her return to South Africa. The shepherd, who worked on the family farm, Oortmanspoort, was a favourite subject. With his hands folded together under his chin, as if leaning on a stick, he is shown surrounded by sheep in the cool fields of an early morning. The brightening sky on either side of his hat, with jaunty feather proudly inserted into the band, and his crimson scarf reflected in the warm tones of his skin, highlight the artist’s empathetic portrayal of the local farm workers. Echoing Toon van der Heever’s poetic explorations of the ties binding farmers to the soil, the portrait epitomises the pastoral idylls that have made Laubser such a sought-after artist in South Africa. By contrast, the landscape retains all the vigour of her German Expressionism mentors while hinting at the life of languor evoked in Henri Matisse’s Riviera vacation paintings. 1. Delmont, Liz. (1987) ‘Introduction’. In Bedford, Emma and McClelland, Lynne. Maggie Laubser: Early Works from the Silberberg Collection , Cape Town: South African National Gallery. Page 6. verso © The Estate of Maggie Laubser | DALRO 247