Strauss & co - 16 October 2017, Cape Town

307 607 Maurice van Essche SOUTH AFRICAN 1906-1977 Figures in a Clearing signed oil on canvas 53,5 by 72cm R  –   Berman described as the “hazards of self-repetition,” Van Essche’s imaginative scenes of Congolese women bearing the loads of domestic duty were highly esteemed. “Perhaps no South African artists has succeeded so much in creating his own African imagery as Van Essche whose paintings of Africa, and of the Congo particularly, have established a style which finds many imitators but few emulators,”wrote a young Neville Dubow when Van Essche exhibited in Cape Town in 1963. Dubow singled out Van Essche’s power as a colourist, “and his ability to use this gift in combination with a consistent stylised technique to produce work of great vigour and assurance.”2 1 Esmé Berman, Art and Artists of South Africa , Cape Town: A.A. Balkema, 1970, page 311. 2 Nevile Dubow, untitled statement in printed leaflet accompanying Maurice van Essche’s exhibition at Lidchi Art Gallery, Cape Town, May 1963. 607