Strauss & co - 12 October 2015, Cape Town

527 Fanie (Stephanus Johannes Paulus) ELOFF SOUTH AFRICAN 1 885-1947 Russian Ballet II circa 1932 - 1938 bronze height: 83cm excluding base; 88cm including base R200 000–300 000 PROVENANCE The Fanie Eloff Family Collection LITERATURE Gerard de Kamper and Chris de Klerk. (2011) Sculptured - The Complete Works of Fanie Eloff , Dept of UP Arts for Pretoria University. Illustrated on page 70. Dr FCL Bosman. (1961) ‘Fanie Eloff’ in Our Art, Vol 2 , SA Association for the Advancement of Knowledge and Culture. Pretoria. 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 qualaity of his medium is completely forgotten. [edited] The original plaster cast was brought to South Africa from France after the war but was never cast in bronze. Following Eloff’s death in 1947 it was purchased by his family at an auction in 1948. This is one of three bronze casts made at the Vignali Foundry in Pretoria, which Eloff used. Russian Ballet I and II were the last works Eloff did before fleeing Paris, which may explain why they were not signed. front view side view 228