Notes

Jan Hugo and Sophie Charlotte Küpper came to South Africa from Germany, as members of the Moravian Mission Society. In 1928, they settled at the society’s mission station at Mamre, in the Western Cape, where Jan ran the Mission’s general dealer store. At the time Maggie Laubser was living at Oortmanspost, the Laubser family farm, not far from Mamre, and she became acquainted with the Küppers. She stayed with them whenever she wanted to paint in the area and, in gratitude for the Küppers’ hospitality during these visits, Laubser would give her hosts one or more paintings.

The present lot by Laubser was acquired by the family in this way, and acts as both a testament to the friendship between the artist and the Küppers, and a time capsule of the era in which they were produced.

Provenance

Gifted by the artist to the current owner's family.

The Küpper Family Collection.

Literature

Dalene Marais (1994) Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics, Johannesburg: Perskor, similar examples illustrated in black and white on page 321, catalogue number 1351 and page 322, catalogue numbers 1353 and 1354.