Strauss & co - 11 November 2019, Johannesburg

23 15 Alexis Preller SOUTH AFRICAN 1911–1975 Black Prince signed and dated ‘74 oil on board 28 by 22,5 cm R400 000 – 600 000 Over a lifetime, Alexis Preller painted a long line of mythical portraits, symbolic heads, floating or disembodied portrayals of mythical gods, kings, princes and angels, portraits that relate to the notion of a sculptural fragment. Black Prince of 1974 is unusual in that it is the only known portrait of a black prince painted by Preller. Similar to The Flower King of 1968 or the Poet Prince of 1975, Preller’s Black Prince has a beautifully elongated and tapered head, the lips are full and sensual, the beard is stylised, in this instance with strings of aquamarine beads, and the nose is exquisitely slender and refined. Yet in this rendition, the large eyes give the prince an unusually doleful expression which is accentuated by a crown of floating white, blue and green tear drops set against the prince’s dark head of hair. In the latter part of his life Guna Massyn was living and working with Preller – and was beginning to forge a career as an artist – and traces of Massyn’s influence may well be discernible in this painting.