Seated Figure on a Bench

Provenance

Everard Read, Johannesburg.

Private Collection.

Notes

The nude is one of Neil Rodger's most enduring and central subjects, occupying his attention across four decades of practice. Trained at both the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, Rodger inherited a European tradition in which the figure was the most demanding and serious test of a painter's skill, and he returned to it frequently throughout his career.

His figures are situated primarily against simple backgrounds, allowing them to dominate the composition. In these works, Rodger does not gesture toward Europe or the academy. He places the unclothed figure squarely in its own landscape, and in doing so pays homage to both his South African context and his European training.