Strauss & co - 2017 Mid-year Review

Irma Stern, like Pierneef, requires no introduction. She is, as Welz often liked to say, “a name to conjure with”. Two fine Stern portraits achieved solid returns for sellers. Stern’s Young Arab (1942), which was characterised by Strauss & Co specialist, Wilhelm van Rensburg, as an “exploration of shared human experience,” fetched R13 641 600. Malay Woman (1954), an empathicallymodern portrait of a fashionable young woman, collected R5 456 640 (high estimate R4 million). Another first-generation modern who has excelled at auction in 2017 is Maggie Laubser. Shepherd Seated with his Flock , first exhibited at the 1936 Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg, sold for R3 978 800 (high estimate R2.5 million). Laubser’s market began to spike in 2006, surprising even Welz who knocked down a record sale. Expect further upward growth when Laubser’s undated portrait, The Old Shepherd (estimate R2.8 - R3.4 million), goes under the hammer at Strauss & Co’s Cape Town sale on 16 October. Maggie Laubser Shepherd Seated with his Flock Sold R3 978 800 Irma Stern Malay Woman Sold R5 456 640 9