Strauss & co - 16 October 2017, Cape Town

280 Homage to Hieronymus Bosch is a precursor to Preller’s 1949 work, Symbols on a Beach , painted on Preller’s return from the Seychelles. Central to both paintings is a complex image of a dead tree with a branch penetrating a shallow bowl-like structure that cups a flying fish and a European or Florentine head. This disembodied, brooding, turbaned head gazes directly at the viewer from beneath the stark branches of the tree. A naked falling figure is impaled on a branch below an owl which is quietly perched at the apex of the tree. “When Alexis was not studying the riches of the Louvre, he often prowled the bookshops of Montmartre. One day, he came upon a rare treasure, a beautiful and very costly illustrated book on Hieronymus Bosch (c 1450-1516). The Dutch master of fantasy and symbolism was a fascinating figure and an eminently compatible addition to his artistic production. Alexis was enthralled and Susan* bought the volume for him as a gift.”1 “Books were extremely important in Alexis Preller’s life and appeared often in his still lifes. He read ferociously, and living so far away from the world’s major art centres and great collections, he was heavily dependent on his art books for their visual content and inspiration. His impressive collection of volumes with colour illustrations was highly valued in a time when art reproductions were rare.”2 The stage-like setting of Homage to Hieronymus Bosch is significantly created by two books, one lying horizontally and the other opened on an illustrated page creating a backdrop for a complex tableau of figures involved in fantastical rituals, figures flying on a fish, a hand appearing from behind a draped brilliant red cloth that must obscure a figure centre stage, while another figure, a hermit-saint referenced from Bosch’s painting St Jerome at Prayer (c 1842), lies elegantly across the illustrated page. On the far right of the book platform, a stocky ‘peasant’woman carries an infant on her hip; below the stage, the deep blue cloth beneath the book transforms into an ocean-like moat, and a fish in a sumptuous medieval cape is marooned in its shallow waters. This composition, dramatically lit in chiaroscuro, highlights Preller’s capacity to transform the ordinary and mundane into a fantastical evocation of his emotional world, and his ability to harness the rich vocabulary of world art. 1 Esmé Berman and Karel Nel. (2009) Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows , Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing. Page 105. 2 Esmé Berman and Karel Nel. (2009) Alexis Preller: Collected Images , Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing. Page 51 and 53. *Peter and Susan Marais were Preller’s hosts while he was in Paris. Karel Nel, 2017 Alexis Preller, Still Life with Eggs , 1948, sold Strauss & Co, lot 286, May 2011 photographic credit: Bob Cnoops Alexis Preller, Symbols on a Beach, 1949 photographic credit: Estelle E Pretorius