Irma Stern portrait of a friend and benefactor nets R4.5-million at auction

24 May 2016 - 00:08 By Penwell Dlamini

One of Irma Stern's famous artworks‚ Portrait of Freda Feldman in Basuto Hat‚ has just been sold for R4.5-million. The painting had been expected to sell for between R5-million to R7-million at auction.The portrait‚ produced in 1943‚ is accompanied by the original Basotho hat (or mokorotlo) worn by the sitter. Its subject‚ Freda Feldman‚ was one of Stern's most intimate and enduring friends. The pair met when Feldman (née Ginsburg) married prominent businessman and public intellectual Richard Feldman‚ who‚ along with respected photographer and art dealer Leon Levson‚ was part of an influential group of Jewish patrons who greatly aided Stern‚ particularly during her early career.The Feldmans were known to be patrons of the arts and supported many struggling artists in their lifetime‚ but their friendship with Stern went far deeper than patronage. They acquired pieces they loved from Stern whenever possible‚ and had an ongoing financial arrangement with her‚ paying her in instalments. No sooner had they finished paying off one painting‚ they would begin again on the next.Stern and Feldman shared a taste for elegant dinner parties and fashionable hats - the "paraphernalia of culture" as Stern once described her cultivated tastes in a letter.Stern's other piece‚ Still Life with Mask‚ sold for R900‚000 earlier in the night at the Wanderers Country Club.The auction was organised by Strauss & Co. ..

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