Strauss & Co, Africa’s main public sale home, set a new world file for Russia-born South African painter Vladimir Tretchikoff on Tuesday evening with the sale of his 1955 portrait Woman from the Orient for R31 110 000 ($1 731 845 / £1 283 432).
The long-lasting portray was offered to an nameless phone bidder after a dramatic flurry of 89 bids, narrowly beating a decided in-room contender on the reside public sale in Johannesburg.
The ultimate value, inclusive of fee and taxes, comfortably eclipses the earlier world file for a Tretchikoff work, set at £982 050 in March 2013 at a London public sale for Chinese language Woman (1952).
“It’s at all times good when there’s a murmur earlier than an enormous lot,” mentioned auctioneer Alastair Meredith as he launched Woman from the Orient.
Flurry of applause
Bidding opened briskly and shortly escalated.
“We’ve breached the $1 million mark,” he remarked after accepting a bid of R18 million.
The joy mounted.
“The following bid is R25.2 million, which is one thing I’ve by no means mentioned,” he shortly added.
It took 9 extra bids earlier than the portray discovered its new proprietor at new world file value. Cue flurry of applause.
Woman from the Orient depicts 21-year-old Valerie Howe, daughter of a Cape City grocer, and is one among Tretchikoff’s most recognisable works.
Drawing inspiration from Pre-Raphaelite portray and Golden Age Hollywood glamour, the portrait options Howe in a vivid inexperienced silk robe rendered in Tretchikoff’s signature Technicolor palette.
The work belongs to a small group of iconic photographs produced by the artist through the decade following his transfer to South Africa in 1946.
A print version of Woman from the Orient turned a well-liked sensation in Sixties Britain.
The public sale delivered robust outcomes for William Kentridge, George Pemba, JH Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto and Anton van Wouw, affirming sturdy curiosity in a cross-section of South African artwork.
The 100-lot sale of recent and up to date artwork earned a mixed complete of over R62.9 million.
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