Strauss & co - 6 March 2017, Cape Town

254 524 Irma STERN SOUTH AFRICAN 1894–1966 Still Life with Figs signed and dated 1950 oil on canvas 42 by 55 cm R   –    One cannot but imagine that the execution of this work was an act of unbridled spontaneity by the artist. Irma Stern’s backyard hosted a black fig tree with the sweetest and most delicious fruit. The bounty of it must have been great in her day before it became the half-tree that was left by the end of the 20th century, finally collapsing in the late 1990s. Figs are redolent of the Mediterranean and ancient culture, all very appealing to Irma. Her masterful use of green is evident here, the fan-like spontaneity of the composition has a feminine elegance, a flourish, almost a flamenco. These figs would have been, on numerous occasions, the completion of one her sumptuous feasts, where a sensual display of fruit on a brass platter was the climax. Christopher Peter Director, UCT Irma Stern Museum