Notes

After studying at the Academy of Fine Art in Brussels in the mid-twenties, Maurice van Essche worked with Henri Matisse in the south of France in 1933 and exhibited in Paris in 1935. He arrived in Cape Town via Leopoldville in 1940 and established the Continental School of Art in 1946. He was included in the Venice Biennale in 1952, 1954 and 1956 and in 1958 was appointed Commissioner for South Africa at the Venice Biennale.

In the opinion of Agnes Humbert, Assistant Director, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris:

South Africa is to be congratulated for having adopted an artist of the calibre of Maurice van Essche. His robust and sane talent continues its development in harmony with that of his fellow-artists of Paris and Brussels, in spite of six thousand miles which separate them. He wrestles with the same problems and arrives at the same solutions with his rare and independent esprit. Van Essche absorbs the very essence of the subjects which inspire him, submitting them to his austere, selective and emphatic vision.ⁱ

Fishermen and Women I is one of Maurice van Essche’s most impressive paintings to come to auction in a while. These fisher folk meet at the end of the day to exchange tales and compare their catch. With his celebrated selective vision and his knowledge of the simplified abstraction of the Cubists, Van Essche portrays them as heroic figures ennobled by their labour. Strong contrasts and powerful draughtsmanship underscore this. With less interest in the distinguishing features of individuals, the artist focuses primarily on their symbolic significance.

Drawing on his experience of working with Matisse, Modernism’s supreme colourist, he employs unusual and subtle colour combinations of mustard, tangerine, olive green and pale aquamarine. Silhouetted against a deep indigo strip of sea and a sky of gathering clouds, the figures appear all the more sculptural, steadfast and timeless.

ⁱ Carl Büchner, Van Essche, Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1967, unpaginated.