Irma Stern’s Mary paints a thousand words

JULIE LEIBOWITZ

The painting, to be auctioned at The Wanderers Club, Illovo, on 12 November, is of Mary Cramer (nee Ginsberg 1912 to 1988). She was the younger sister of Stern’s friend, confidante, and patron, Freda Feldman.

The painting is interesting on a number of levels, not least because it is an important work by Stern, born of a German Jewish family, and to date, South Africa’s highest grossing artist.

Stern’s works sell for much more than other famous local artists like Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef and William Kentridge. A whopping R347 million worth of the artist’s work has been sold by Strauss&co alone in the past decade alone, making Stern one of the globe’s most bankable artists.

The auction price for this painting, set between R5 million and R7 million, puts it into the category of serious art.

This painting, which has been in the possession of the Feldman family since it was painted in 1941, offers a snapshot into early 20th century Jewish Johannesburg. The Feldmans, who lived in Houghton, were hugely important patrons for Stern, who was a frequent visitor and guest at their home during the 1940s and 1950s.

Art historian and artist Professor Federico Freschi paints a picture of those visits. He writes in Strauss&co’s auction catalogue, “Freda [Feldman] would go to considerable lengths to ensure that the artist’s considerable physical and practical demands were met, including painting the dining room walls a specific shade of emerald green at her behest, the better to offset her paintings.

“In 1941, Stern spent an extended time at the Feldmans, during which time, as Mona [Berman, Freda’s daughter] recalls, ‘She painted many subjects including the portrait of my mother in her model French hat, and the portrait of Mary in her stylish black dress’… Freda hung the work in pride of place in the emerald green dining room with the portraits that Stern had painted of her.”

Strauss&co Art Specialist Dr Alistair Meredith describes it as a very important work, painted during the prime of the artist’s career. He says its tone is muted for a Stern painting – Freschi describes it as “uncharacteristically restrained” – possibly because it was painted during the war.

It also has a “Spanish air”, intensified by the flower behind Mary’s ear and the puffed sleeves, and gathered, black collar of her dress. Freschi says this is evocative of Spanish painter Goya’s pictures of noblewomen.

“The Spanish references in these paintings may reflect something of Stern’s nostalgia for Spain at the time (her travels had been curtailed by the war in Europe, and she had not visited the continent since 1937),” he writes. Stern was well travelled in Europe and Africa, and her works are considered an important part of the German Expressionist movement.

Mary is described as a “complex, secretive” woman by her niece, Mona Berman, Freda’s daughter, and the work offers a fascinating insight into her personality. Though beautiful, “something about her always remained a mystery, clouded in conjecture and uncertainty”, Berman recollects.

“To the outside world, Mary appeared to lead a charmed life. She was beautiful and married to a successful man who adored her. She lived in a lovely home with a fine garden, and was a gracious hostess renown for her attention to detail and exquisite taste,” Freschi writes. “Yet inwardly, it seems that Mary was driven by passions and torments of which she never spoke.”

The portrait captures this dichotomy well. Freschi describes a “pensive aloofness in Mary’s expression, that speaks also of a certain pathos”.

“While the slight exaggeration of her limpid eyes immediately draws the viewer, this is deflected by her refusal to return the gaze; she stares instead into the middle distance beyond the frame. While she is certainly poised, she seems somehow emotionally tense, the pearl earring a metonymic displacement, perhaps of an invisible tear.”

Oscar Wilde wrote that, “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter”. Perhaps the complexity of this portrait is equally a representation of Stern’s mixed emotions. It was painted at a time of comparative luxury for white South Africans, yet a time of deprivation, fear, and uncertainty for South African Jews, even though they were far from the battle front.

• Mary is available for pre-auction viewing at The Wanderers Club, Illovo, from 9 to 11 November, 10:00 to 17:00. Walkabouts will be held on 10 and 11 November at 11:00. The auction will be held on 12 November. Contact Strauss&co on 011 728 8246 for more information.