Notes

In 1934, encouraged by his lifelong friend Norman Eaton and advised by JH Pierneef, Preller travelled to London and enrolled at the Westminster School of Art. Preller was somewhat apprehensive about his prospects as an artist until gaining recognition for a work entitled A Welsh Farm, in all likelihood the present lot.

Esmé Berman and Karel Nel recount the story surrounding this work:

With the end of the year approaching, one of the events devised to challenge students and to separate sheep from goats was scheduled to take place very shortly. For that occasion students were given a set subject to work on, away from the studio. They were then to bring the paintings to the school on the appointed day, when they would be assembled into an exhibition. A critic from one of the well-known newspapers was usually invited to inspect the show and to criticise the works from a professional point of view.

The subject assigned for this term’s exercise was ‘The Edge of the City’. Alexis wasn’t sure how to set about expressing that theme, but he did have a painting that he had worked on while on a short holiday with friends in Wales. He had called it A Welsh Farm and he thought that it would serve the purpose. When he arrived at the studio on the day of reckoning, he was quite upset to discover that most of the students who had the know-how about such events had had their paintings beautifully framed. Amidst them his “just looked like an old piece of canvas!” He added his picture to the pile and left. The tutor and a few assistants would arrange the exhibition.

On his walk back to the Westminster School of Art late that afternoon he was filled with foreboding. Had he been misguided in assuming that he had any prospects as an artist? Was this to be the deflating moment of truth? Since there was nothing to be gained from evading the inevitable, he hurried on along the road and through the entrance of the School of Art ...

When I came in my painting had been framed and placed in the centre of the room. I remember the shock and surprise I had at how complete and finished the painting suddenly looked. I had never thought of putting it in a frame.

We all sat back on a tier of seats ... and the tutor and this man went around from one painting to the other, discussing them. When they got to mine, his remark was, “I think this is the most outstanding painting in the room ...!”

By the time I left the studio I was so excited to think that a painting of mine could be singled out ... I knew from the excitement of the students that something had been achieved and when I walked back through the park to my rooms that night, I realized that if I could have done that in a year, then painting would be the thing... From then on I stopped trying to write, to act, and made up my mind that I would be a painter!

Provenance

A gift from the artist to his friend, Alastair Denoon, and thence by descent. 

Accompanied by photographs of Alastair Denoon and of Alexis Preller inscribed "Allie, ever your friend Alexis".

Literature

Esmé Berman and Karel Nel. (2009)  Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing. Pages 3 and 18.