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1970s hearthrob Tos Du Toit's Art Collection poised to go under the hammer

3 Nov 2016

Blessed with good looks, Du Toit, who passed away in March earlier this year, had young girls swooning when he played the romantic hero in Sien jou Môre and Vlindervanger in the 1970s. He wrote and directed the romantic novel and film, Elsa se Geheim, starring Anna Neethling Pohl supported by an excellent cast of South African actors.

Du Toit was an art lover and a long-time friend of celebrated artist, Walter Battiss. His art collection of some fifteen paintings includes numerous works by Battiss, such as Homage to Cavafy, Greek poet, journalist and civil servant (estimate R250 000 – 350 000) and Genesis – Adam (estimate R150 000 – 200 000), a splendid celebration of the genesis of man. He published the novel Some People on his 80th birthday, and the book was illustrated with ‘exquisitely witty and tender drawings that Walter Battiss prepared for him’. Another highlight is a spectacular work by Larry Scully entitled City Skyline (estimate R100 000 – 150 000) which evokes the ambitious, energetic and technology-charged spirit of Johannesburg in the late 60s.

Du Toit was witty, richly knowledgeable, multi-talented and very entertaining. He is fondly remembered as an inspiring linguist by Johannesburg Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Camerin, a former pupil at Pretoria Boy’s High School where Tos taught for many years.

Du Toit is quoted as saying that ‘the only time you have to experience life is now, so don’t live in the past or in the future. Let everything be as it is.’

The auction which takes place at The Wanderers Club at 4pm and 8pm, also features, among others, a host of lost treasures of South African art including Adam (R6 500 000 – 9 000 000), a key work by painter Alexis Preller, for decades presumed lost and recently recently repatriated from New York.