Strauss & co - Review 2009

14 Maggie Laubser S OUTH A FRICAN 1886-1973 Composition with Head, Foliage and Huts, 1956, recto Strand verso signed and dated 1956 oil on board, 45 by 40 cm SOLD R891 200, SEPTEMBER 2009 Seascape with Boats, House and Seated Woman Holding a Baby signed and dated 26 oil on board, 44 by 49 cm The Leslie Milner Collection SOLD R835 500, OCTOBER 2009 Maggie Laubser’s paintings continue to achieve impressive prices at auction. Paintings depicting workers’ cottages, such as Composition with Head, Foliage and Huts, 1956 (R891 200) and Seascape with Boats, House and Seated Woman Holding a Baby (R835 500) retain their popularity. Drawing on her own farming background, these paintings encapsulate Laubser’s love of the land and her empathy with those who work the soil and trawl the sea. By contrast, Fishing Harbour, recto, Sunset verso (R534 720) and Windmeul en Landerye (R289 640), both painted in 1922 when she was living in Berlin, are strong examples of the ways in which German Expressionism shaped her approach to painting. The former bears an uncanny resemblance to Wassily Kandinsky’s Starnberger See , a popular Bavarian resort frequented by artists associated with Der Blaue Reiter in the early twentieth century. The latter, with its iconic windmill, was painted on the Baltic Sea when Laubser was on a short break with Irma Stern and is probably the only known painting that Laubser produced while these two great artists were working together.