Artists

From Albert Adams to Portia Zvavahera, Strauss & Co maintains a detailed database of every artist sold at auction since 2009. Whether it is painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, ceramics or new media, this searchable database lists by artist every lot offered and provides aggregated data useful to collectors. Famous South African artists like William Kentridge, JH Pierneef, Alexis Preller and Irma Stern are introduced with helpful biographies along with the best contemporary artists.



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Pranas Domsaitis

Lithuanian/South African 1880-1965 


Pranas Domsaitis was born Franz Domscheit in Kropinas, on the border of East Prussia and Lithuania. He spent the first twenty-seven years of his life as a farmer, but always had an interest in art. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Köningsberg and under Lovis Corinth in Berlin. He furthered his studies in Paris, Florence London and Amsterdam. The artist’s early influences of Lithuanian peasant and religious folk art remained the artist’s primary influence, and to this was added the more simplified and darkly outlined forms that he learned from the German Expressionists. He was also influenced by French artist Georges Rouault and the Norwegian Edvard Munch. In 1920 he changed his name to Pranas Domsaitis. In 1949, at the age of 69, he moved to South Africa where he resided until his death in 1965. Domsaitis was a member of the New Group and the South African Society of Arts. He won the Artists of Fame and Promise competition in 1964 at the age of 84. Working in oil, watercolour and numerous graphic media, Domsaitis painted his surroundings. He painted the landscape, the people and their animals, and particularly flowers. He used mostly sombre colours to paint simple figures, adding heavy outlines to create his melancholic and religious images. While living in South Africa the artist focused on two themes, still-life studies, and religious and sacred subjects, including the life of Christ. Many of Domsaitis’ South African landscapes were painted in the Karoo, where he captured the vast open spaces and endless emptiness, the long twilight and isolated homesteads. He focused on capturing the spirituality and atmosphere of the region. Domsaitis exhibited in numerus group and solo shows throughout Europe and South Africa, including the 1960 and 1964 Quadrennial exhibitions, and his works are represented in several art museum collections throughout Europe and in most of the public collections in South Africa.


192 lots offered      77.60% sold      ZAR 8 292 940
 

  Including Premium and VAT Results include Buyer's Premium and VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Still Life with Flowers in a Vase and Fruit (recto); Children Dancing (verso)
25 Jun 2024
Sold for ZAR 76 213
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Flowers in a Vase
28 May 2024
Sold for ZAR 93 800
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Dancers
28 May 2024
Sold for ZAR 143 750
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Two Figures Outside a Hut (Recto); Standing Figure (Verso)
13 May 2024
Sold for ZAR 69 000
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Huts and Figures in a Landscape
13 May 2024
Sold for ZAR 17 588
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Kristina Jokubaviciene; Pranas Domšaitis: Vaizduotes realybe, Reality of the Imagination
13 May 2024
Sold for ZAR 1 173
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Flight to Egypt
19 Mar 2024
Sold for ZAR 164 150
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Karoo Landscape
19 Mar 2024
Sold for ZAR 56 280
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Flowers in a Vase
19 Mar 2024
Sold for ZAR 57 500
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Flowers in a Vase
11 Mar 2024
Sold for ZAR 69 000
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Huts in Landscape, recto-verso
19 Feb 2024
Sold for ZAR 48 300
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Pranas Domsaitis; Two Women by a Hut
27 Nov 2023
Sold for ZAR 82 075
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT

Results in green indicate post sales.