Strauss & co - Review 2009

9 Magnolias signed oil on canvas, 69 by 89 cm SOLD R1 782 400, MARCH 2009 Frans Oerder S OUTH A FRICAN 1867-1944 World Record Esmé Berman has noted that the print of Oerder’s Magnolias , published by the New York Graphic Society in 1939, achieved in its time the highest world sales of any still-life reproduction. Giving some clue to its popularity, she describes the painting in which “drawing is everything; each shape is precisely defined and objectively described” in a manner that foregrounds the subject matter and conforms closely to academic tradition. Esmé Berman, The Story of South African Painting, A. A. Balkema, Cape Town, 1975, p 22.