Strauss & co - 13 November 2017, Johannesburg

18 Human conflict has long been a subject of art. The earliest depictions of war and conflict in South Africa include Charles Bell’s 60 drawings of the seventh Cape frontier war (1846–47), various drawings and portfolios by Thomas Baines portraying the eighth Cape frontier war (1850–53), and a diverse constellation of San rock paintings describing various skirmishes, including those with Boer commandos and Nguni herders. The selection in this sale focuses on two important historical conflicts: Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) and World War II (1939–45). Highlights include Alexis Preller’s Fleurs du Mal (1944), a moving study of a prone figure whose shrapnel wounds are transformed into petals and butterflies, Irma Stern’s portrait of her friend and patron, Freda Feldman (1943), and Dorothy Kay’s striking piece of reportage, War News (c.1945). Various artists, including C Meredith Bleach, Gwelo Goodman, Erich Mayer and Frans Oerder, depicted the Anglo-Boer War. Mayer was part of a Boer commando and unofficially recorded the war, sketching at farms visited by his battalion. He was banished to the island of St Helena after his capture at Mafeking where he continued to record aspects of the war. Anton van Wouw is represented in this selection with his 1907 study of exiled South African Republic president, Paul Kruger. Van Wouw’s first major commission, in 1896, was a ceremonial statue of Kruger, which is currently displayed at Church Square, Pretoria. A great many South African artists served in World War II, including Robert Hodgins, Alexis Preller and Cecil Skotnes, who witnessed the unpacking of Michelangelo’s David at the Uffizi Museum, Florence. An accomplished illustrator, Dorothy Kay was one of the first artists to be employed as an official war artist. Other notable war artists included Philip Bawcombe, Francois Krige, Neville Lewis and New Group co-founder Terence McCaw. Bawcombe covered both the North African (1940–43) and Italian (1943–45) campaigns; his work is held in the collection of The Ditsong National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg. Adolph Jentsch’s After the Rain, SWA (1939) may seem far removed from the nascent conflict in Europe, but the German-born painter’s studio in Dresden would be destroyed, dispelling any thoughts of returning to his homeland. Lots 30, 31, 33, 302, 304, 309, 314, 319, 324, 329, 332 and 333 Wartime South African Artworks Lot 302 Thomas Baines A Party Attacked