Maggie Laubser: Annie of the Royal Bafokeng

Maria Magdalena (Maggie) Laubser was born in 1886 on a farm in the Swartland as the eldest of six children.  She is highly regarded as one of South Africa's best artists and considered, together with Irma Stern, to be largely responsible for the introduction of Expressionism to South Africa.  Like so many, her work was initially met with criticism, but over the years that has changed and she is now regarded as an exemplary and quintessentially South African artist. 

She was initially educated and introduced to the arts in South Africa, but was later also sponsored to continue her studies overseas.  She studied in the Netherlands and Great Britain, which enhanced her knowledge of worldwide art trends.  She traveled extensively before coming back to South Africa in 1924, and these travels also greatly influenced her work.

This specific painting was painted while Maggie Laubser visited the Versters at their home in Rustenberg in 1945, where she met their nanny, Annie.  Laubser was struck by Annie's beauty and insisted that she should sit for a portrait.  Laubser was not very keen to part with her portrait, and when she left a few days later, it was only when she was already on the train, just before departure, that her hosts, the Versters, could convince her to sell the painting, although reluctantly.  The painting was bought for UK45, and remained in the Verster family until 2011 when the painting was sold at auction.   

'Annie was a daughter of the Bafokeng people, and Verster had to seek special dispensation from the Bafokeng chief in order to employ her as a nanny.  At the time, the Royal Bafokeng held considerable power and wealth due to the discovery of substantial reserves of platinum on their land in the Rustenburg valley in the 1920s.

Laubser was often influenced by exotic beauty and her travels within South Africa.  Her portraits of young Indian and African women, in which flower motifs are employed as decorative surrounds, are some of her finest.'

This 40 x 50cm version of the painting is fairly challenging and has 30 colours.  Each box contains a stretched, printed and numbered canvas, paint, brushes and a page detailing the numbers for an extra reference.

https://grahamsgallery.co.za/maria-magdalena-maggie-laubser/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Laubser

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/good-life/2011-02-09-annie-of-the-royal-bafokeng-painting-comes-up-for-sale/