Important South African & International Art, Decorative Arts & Jewellery

Live Auction, 14 March 2016

Session 3

Sold for

ZAR 34 104
Lot 292
  • Attributed to Charles Davidson Bell; Bassouto War Dance


Lot Estimate
ZAR 40 000 - 60 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 34 104

About this Item

Attributed to Charles Davidson Bell
South African 1813-1882
Bassouto War Dance
circa 1836

inscribed on the reverse with the title and 'for Captain Wood', in pencil

watercolour
26,5 by 36,5cm excluding frame

Notes

This relates to the group of seven finished watercolours in MuseuMAfricA which Kennedy attributes positively to Bell. The initials 'FG' lower left are consistent with other Bell watercolours which bear initials which seem to function as some kind of coding.  In the opinion of Michael Godby, Emeritus Professor of History of Art at the University of Cape Town, "Charles Bell is one of the most significant - and interesting - of all nineteenth-century South African artists."

cf. RF Kennedy. (1966) Catalogue of Pictures in the Africana Museum. Johannesburg; Africana Museum. pages 178-181, B787-793.

cf. Phillida Brooke Simons. (1998) The life and work of Charles Bell, Cape Town: Fernwood Press.

cf. Michael Godby. (2015) Battleground, Charles Bell's drawings of the War of the Axe, 1846, Cape Town: Primavera Publishing

We are grateful to Michael Godby for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

Literature