Strauss & co - 7 November 2016, Johannesburg

186 243 Walter Whall BATTISS south african 1906–1982 Genesis – Adam signed oil on canvas 34 by 50 cm R150 000 – 200 000 provenance The Collection of the Late Mr Chris (Tos) Du Toit. Walter Battiss’s Genesis – Adam is a splendid celebration of the genesis of man, with three Adam figures given life in a glorious, paradisiacal setting. The artist used the technique of scraffito to score the male form, doves and foliage, from three swathes of orange and yellow-sunrise hues that are framed in magenta. Battiss built up the painting by layering smooth-surfaced fields of colour before deftly, with a single outline, carving from the paint the three Adam figures. The first figure is tender and genderless, the central Adam figure is muscular, poised, virile and assured of his masculinity, while the third is modestly crouching in the implied landscape with two doves and shrubs.