Strauss & co - 20 May 2019, Johannesburg

152 261 Alexis Preller SOUTH AFRICAN 1911–1975 Two Male Nudes signed, dated 34 and inscribed with ‘Studio (or Student) Painting, Mark Gertler corrections’on the margin of the canvas. oil on canvas 49 by 38 cm R250 000 – 400 000 PROVENANCE Volks Art Auctions, Pretoria, 3 March 1978, Paintings, Intaglios and Drawings by Alexis Preller, Estate Late Alexis Preller and Estate Late Guna Massyn, Lot 1. The catalogue entry for the auction states ‘Inscribed on fold of canvas: Studio Painting, Mark Gertler corrections’. Alexis Preller studied under Mark Gertler at the Westminster School of Art in London in 1934, the year that Two Male Nudes was painted. This imposing and earnest painting is of particular significance as it is the first known painting by Preller of the male nude, a subject he was to revisit throughout his life. Preller clearly valued this study as it remained in his collection throughout his life, only being sold as part of his estate sale in 1978, following the death of the artist and his partner Guna Massyn in 1975. 260 Alexis Preller SOUTH AFRICAN 1911–1975 A Box of Mangoes signed oil on canvas 41 by 51 cm R300 000 – 400 000 A Box of Mangoes (circa 1938) is an early painting by Alexis Preller thought to have been painted in 1938 after his return to South Africa from London. Preller’s early work shows his interest in painting still lifes in which objects of special significance to him appear, and items of fruit such as mangoes or apples take on singular importance. Throughout his career Preller revisited earlier themes, subject matter, mythical and symbolic objects and prototypes, but what is significant and unusual here is that twenty years later Preller painted another version of the same painting, The Box of Mangoes (1958), from the same raised angle. He lays out the richly coloured mangoes on the cardboard box in almost the exact same position, but in the later version, the much-repeated device of fragments of spider conch shells are more clearly visible. cf. A Box of Mangoes (1958) , sold Strauss & Co, 12 November 2018, Lot 323.