Strauss & co - 26 - 28 July 2020, Online

185 PROPERTY OF A PRETORIA COLLECTOR body rigid and pressed to the ground, presumably checking on British positions. His Mauser rifle is placed to his right, under his felt hat, which has been removed to lower his silhouette. Likely thick with dust and sweat, his beard rests flat on the rockface, while some sense of the moment’s tension comes from the soldier’s stiff fingers, knuckles locked, straining under his weight. With much of the body under a thick blanket, but light touching the cheekbones and temples, one is quickly drawn to the soldier’s composed expression: it hints at Boer grit, nerve and discipline. Rather excitingly, the Van Wouw literature has recently leapt forwards. Fresh research, led primarily by the University of Pretoria’s Gerard de Kamper and Chris de Klerk, has shed new light on the artist’s methods and casting histories. This particu- lar casting was made under the watch of Galileo Massa who, working from his foundry on the Via del Babuino in Rome, took over many of the artist’s plasters from the mid-1930s. 414–420 NO LOTS