Irma Stern

Bonhams, London, 10 September 2008, lot 418

Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Cape Town, Association of Arts Gallery, Irma Stern: Riviera, 1965, no. 28

Painted on the French Riviera during an extended stay in Cannes, Bathers encapsulates a period of both personal challenge and creative renewal for Stern. Letters to her friends Richard and Freda Feldman reveal that she arrived in Cannes in February 1965, following her successful Paris exhibition at Galerie André Weil in January. She stayed at the Hotel Méditerranée, enjoying rooms overlooking the bustling harbour, “all packed with yachts and smaller boats,” as she described on 10 February.

Stern’s time in Cannes was marked by ill health in March and April, which delayed her painting. Yet, her correspondence from May 3rd captures the anxiety and anticipation she felt before beginning a new creative period: “I am always scared to start a new working period and my paints and tools resent me so much they take up a position against me until I have conquered them again.” This vulnerability is perhaps reflected in the loose, gestural brushwork and luminous palette that characterise Bathers, qualities noted by critics as emblematic of her late style.

The painting was among the works Stern exhibited upon her return to South Africa later that year. A preparatory sketch for the present lot was sold at Bonhams on 14 October 2009 and many other sketches of sunbathers on the beach from this time can be found in the collection of the Irma Stern Trust. The subject evokes the sunlit leisure of the Riviera, yet Stern’s dynamic handling of paint and colour infuses the scene with emotional intensity and immediacy. This period also saw her palette lighten and her brushwork become more calligraphic, a shift attributed to the Mediterranean light and her evolving artistic confidence.

Stern’s achievements were widely recognised: in 1965, she was also awarded the Medal of Honour by Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, underscoring her status as one of South Africa’s most celebrated artists.