Strauss & co - 12 November 2018, Johannesburg

102 164 Le Roux Smith Le Roux SOUTH AFRICAN 1914–1963 Four Ndebele Women signed oil on canvas 125,5 by 100 cm R40 000 – 60 000 165 Durant Sihlali SOUTH AFRICAN 1935–2004 Man and Girl Walking signed and dated 71 oil on board 56 by 45 cm R25 000 – 35 000 In 1935, Le Roux Smith Le Roux, a Michaelis art student, was selected alongside Eleanor Esmonde-White to produce a large-scale mural, in pure egg tempera, on the upper floor of South Africa House in London. After training in the technique under William Rothenstein at the Royal College of Art, and making scouting trips to study quattrocento examples, the two completed the so-called Zulu Room, a panoramic, stylised and ambitious interpretation of the tribe’s ceremony, landscape, tradition and mythology. Le Roux’s linear style, with its flat, strong colour combinations – all on show in the present lot – was well-suited to mural decoration, and certainly conjured the work of his more famous contemporary, Diego Riviera. ©The Estate of Durant Sihlali | DALRO

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