Maggie Laubser was born on the farm Bloublommetjieskloof, near Malmesbury, in the wheat fields of the Western Cape. The formative impressions of her youth – farm life, the inhabitants of the farm, nature, flowers and animals, bathed in the ever-changing light – informed her painting throughout her life. She left for Europe in 1913 and visited an artists’ colony at Laren in Holland, studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, lived in Antwerp and at Lake Garda. From 1922 to 1924 she came in close contact with German Expressionism in Berlin and blossomed into a painter of authority and commitment. She simplified her images by stripping them of detail, intensified her colours and contrasts, and retained only the essential symbolic forms of her personal vision and interpretation.

In 1924 she returned permanently to South Africa where initially her art received harsh criticism but over time her considerable achievements were acknowledged. From 1947 she lived at her home Altyd Lig at the Strand, and continued to paint until her death in 1973.

Image source: Muller Ballot (2016) Maggie Laubser: A Window on Always Light. Stellenbosch: Sun Press, page vi.