ANTON VAN WOUW (DUTCH / SOUTH AFRICAN 1862-1945)
THE MEALIEPAP EATER
Estimate: £6,000 - £8,000
Auction: Session Two - Thursday 20th February at 10am
Description
bronze, medium brown patina, signed 'A. Van Wouw/ S.A_Joh-burg' and inscribed 'Foundry, G. Massa, Roma, mounted on a rectangular variegated purple marble base
Dimensions
29cm wide, 16cm high, 24cm deep
Provenance
Provenance: The Maisels Collection
Footnote
Note: Anton Van Wouw is known for his depictions of the indigenous people of South Africa and has been described as ‘the sculptor of national life’. Van Wouw was born in Driebergen, Holland in 1862. He studied at the Rotterdam Academy for Arts before moving to Pretoria in South Africa in 1890 and then to Johannesburg in 1906. Some of his finest work can be found in his portrayals of indigenous peoples, such as migrant workers from the Shangaan tribe in Mozambique, who worked in harsh and dangerous conditions in the gold mines of Transvaal. ‘The Mealiepap Eater’ depicts a Shangaan man eating mealiepap from a traditional pot with three legs. The model for this work is also the subject for his sculpture of a tribesman entitled ‘Shangaan’. Mealiepap is made from maize meal, a course flour made from maize, to produce porridge or a firmer pap which can be eaten with meat or vegetables. In 1907 Van Wouw received an inheritance from his father enabling him to cast his small bronzes at the Massa and Nisini foundries in Rome. The present lot is mounted on a separate marble base and this is how the Italian castings carried out in Van Wouw’s lifetime were presented, while later posthumous castings had an integral bronze base and show the right hand of the boy holding a stick above the pot rather than scraping food from it.
For a recent example of ‘The Mealiepap Eater’ sold at auction see Bonhams South African Sale, 12th October 2021, lot 45.