Notes

In the mid to late 1940s, Jean Welz focused his concentration on painting nudes. Blue Nude, dating from this period, has characteristically bold line, gestural brush strokes and lively mark-making, placing this painting – the product of years of determined observation and mastery of technique – amongst the finest of his creative output. Welz’s skilful artistic alchemy, transforming reality into the poetic realm and uniting intellect and emotion, imbues the image with life in a way that is both timeless and enigmatic. This self-challenging search for pictorial truth became a lifetime obsession and is perhaps one of the reasons his works retain their great vitality today. In the present lot the artist describes the reflective quality of flesh by the use of colour, using the glowing highlights of layered yellow and orange hues and shadow areas of blue and green tints to define the form. This rich interplay of observation, application and colour, merge the model and studio surrounds into a perfect moment in time.

‘Probably each of the single nude figures in Welz’s world is an Aphrodite, who bewitches everyone with whom she comes into contact like the goddess of love. She is both the Great Mother and the seductress.’¹

Elza Miles (1997) The World of Jean Welz, Cape Town: Fernwood Press, page 86.

Provenance

Property of Mrs E Kerby.

Sotheby Parke Bernet South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, 2 May 1984, lot 306, with the title Seated Nude.

Stephan Welz & Co in association with Sotheby's, Johannesburg, 7 June 1993, lot 40, with the title Seated Nude.

The Shill Collection.

Literature

Stephan Welz (1989) Art at Auction in South Africa: Twenty Years of Sotheby's/Stephan Welz & Co 1969 to 1989, Johannesburg: AD Donker, illustrated in colour on page 138.

Stephan Welz (1996) Art at Auction in South Africa: The Art Market Review 1969 to 1995, Johannesburg, Art Link (Pty) Ltd, page 94 and illustrated in colour on page 95.

Elza Miles (1997) The World of Jean Welz, Cape Town: Fernwood Press, illustrated in colour on page 120, figure 2, with the title Blue Nude.