South African artist Irma Stern's portrait fetches R21.7 million, setting a new record
Irma Stern's portrait of a Cape Muslim woman has sold for R21.7 million at auction, marking a historic moment for South African art.
Image: Strauss & co
In a proud moment for South African art and heritage, a striking portrait by the illustrious Cape-Town based painter Irma Stern has sold for R21.7 million - another record price for one of her portraits painted in Cape Town.
After more than half a century in private hands, the canvas depicting a Cape Muslim woman reached its new owner via telephone bidding at the third edition of the Strauss & Co annual International Sale on October 28.
The gavel fell after intense competition, with bids vaulting in R1 million increments.
A proud moment for South African art
This landmark result comes at a time when Irma Stern’s name is enjoying international visibility.
The R21.7 million figure sets a new benchmark as the highest amount ever paid for a Stern portrait featuring a female sitter on the African continent
The portrait’s success follows closely on the heels of the R22.3 million achieved in 2023 for her 1939 composition Children Reading the Koran which placed the iconic Cape Town artist firmly in the upper echelons of the international modern-art market.
For South African art lovers and collectors, this is a validation of the international interest of a local female artist who brought a distinctly South African voice to the international art world.
As interest in her work grows, so too does recognition of the cultural heritage she represents.
Irma Stern’s “Children Reading the Koran” painting of 1939 sold for R22.3 million in 2023.
Image: Strauss & co
Previous Irma Stern works that sold for record prices
- In 2000, Stern’s A Still Life with Fruit and Dahlias sold for around R1 million, marking one of her early major auction results.
- In 2014, her Still Life with African Woman fetched R17.6 million at an art auction in London.
- In 2023, her 1939 work Children Reading the Koran achieved R22.3 million — until now, the highest price paid for any Stern at auction in South Africa.
- The current R21.7 million sale of the Cape Muslim woman portrait is therefore the second-highest Stern has ever achieved with the added distinction of being the top female-sitter-portrait record in Africa.
According to Strauss & Co, the bidding was intense and global: buyers from multiple continents registered interest, showing that Stern’s market is not just local but international.
Who was Irma Stern?
Born in 1894 in Schweizer-Reneke in the North West Province to German-Jewish parents, Irma Stern studied art in Germany at Weimar and in Berlin under expressionist influences before returning to Cape Town in 1920.
Her early exhibitions in Cape Town were dismissed by the conservative art establishment of the time, but she persisted. In the 1930s and beyond, her travels through Southern Africa, the Congo region, Zanzibar and Europe broadened her subject matter.
Today, the former home and studio in Rosebank, Cape Town “The Firs” is preserved as the Irma Stern Museum.
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