Press Office
2010 Archive
- Dec 01. Chairman's Review 2010
- Dec 01. Voorsitters Oorsig
- Nov 12. A sparkling array
- Nov 01. Art market grabs investor's imagination and opens pockets at Strauss & Co Auction
- Oct 19. Millions for South African Paintings
- Oct 18. Strauss & Co set a new record for South African art
- Oct 11. New record for South African art
- Sep 23. Top South African Paintings at Strauss & Co's October Auction
- Aug 31. Pierneef attracts wide interest
- Aug 30. Ruth First and Lilian Ngoyi Celebrated in Artwork at Auction
- Aug 03. Jewellery Week at Strauss & Co
- Jul 23. Another Irma Stern Still Life Poised to Break Auction Records
- Jul 23. Valuation Day at The Marine, Hermanus
- Jun 26. Stanley Pinker's, The Wheel of Life, 1974, to be offered for sale in Cape Town on 11 October 2010
- Jun 25. Forthcoming Cape Town Auction
- May 30. Rhodes statue led Welz to success
- May 25. Four South African Still Lifes sell for R22 million
- May 18. Auction of Important South African, British and Continental Paintings and Sculpture
- May 10. Maud Sumner – "a sound investment"
- May 03. Important work by Deborah Bell on auction at Strauss & Co, Johannesburg, 24 May 2010
- May 02. Artists with a passion for Africa
- Mar 25. Irma Stern - Still Life with Dahlias and Fruit
- Mar 16. "Bad News" proves to be good news
- Feb 08. Anton Van Wouw - Bad News
- Feb 08. Jane Alexander - Racework
- Feb 01. Edith Dodo Estate Collection
Rare art find in EL worth more than R1m
July 23, 2010 [ Archived ]
Art auctioneer Stephan Welz made a stunning announcement at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery yesterday when he valued a painting brought in by a private collector at R1.3million.
GREAT FIND: Stephan Welz and Vanessa Phillips from
Strauss & Co (Fine Art Auctioneers and Consultants)
chat about the untitled painting depicting the Union Buildings
by Pieter Wenning (about 1914-1915). The painting
belongs to a private collector and was valued
at between R1million and R1.3million.
In the background is Terry Flynn from the Ann Bryant Art Gallery.
Picture: ALAN EASON
He (Welz) was joking with me, and asked me how much it was worth,” Terry Flynn, of the East London gallery, said yesterday. “Off the top of my head I said it was worth R70000.” Welz then revealed the value of the piece, surprising the socks off Flynn.
Even more astounding, according to Welz, was that he found another rare painting by the same artist in Grahamstown on Wednesday which he valued conservatively at R600000.
“(These works) are very, very rare,” Welz said. “It is highly unusual to find more than one or two in a year.”
Flynn spoke to the Dispatch on behalf of the owner of the East London artwork, who asked to remain anonymous. “The collector is quite knowledgeable about artwork,” he explained, “but the painting is worth at least three times more than she thought she would get for it.”
The artist, Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning, died in 1921 and is considered a South African master . The untitled painting depicts the Pretoria landscape, including a representation of the iconic Union Buildings in the distant background. The painting is thought to have been completed in 1915, as it is not dated.
It was appraised yesterday at the Ann Bryant gallery by Welz, a renowned art critic of Strauss and Company fine art auctioneers. Welz and his colleague Vanessa Phillips have been travelling across the province in order to appraise private collectors’ art, as well as take in entries for the Strauss and Co auction in Johannesburg later this year.
Welz said this year’s trip had been particularly successful due to the discovery of the two Wennings. Wenning’s work is a foremost example of Cape impressionist paintings, characterised by a “preoccupation with denoting the landscape rather than light on the landscape”, Flynn explained. Additionally, the use of broad, bold brushstrokes representing tonal changes in colour, rather than fine detail, also indicate the work of a Cape impressionist.
The painting will be auctioned by Strauss and Co in Johannesburg on November 1. “Maybe it will sell for more than R1million,” Welz speculated.
