Notes

Jane Heath trained at the Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art, London, as did her husband, Jack, before immigrating to South Africa in 1946. Owing to their training, particularly in London, both artists forged their styles in the wider circle of the great British Modernists, Sir Stanley Spencer and Paul and John Nash. While establishing herself as an influential teacher at the Port Elizabeth Technical College, the Pietermaritzburg Technical College, and as Fine Art lecturer at the University of Natal, perhaps because of her indifference to public attention, or indeed her private nature, the majority of Jane's oeuvre remains little-known.

Despite a limited, muted palette, the present lot shows off the artist's tonal range and control. Areas of dry creams, browns, olives and eggshell blues are subtly arranged side by side but rarely mixed. The scale of the picture is unusual too, as is the chosen perspective. The fruit and glass bottle are partially obscured by fabric folds and shadow. Moreover, because the artist has included the table in its entirety, with a dark interior extending into the background, they assume a miniature, jewel-like quality.