Lot 733: Nita (Pauline Augusta Wilhelmina) Spilhaus (South African 1878-1967) STILL

Nita (Pauline Augusta Wilhelmina) Spilhaus (South African 1878-1967) STILL LIFE WITH CARNATIONS signed with the artist's monogram oil on board 52 by 42cm

The outbreak of the First World War marked the beginning of a difficult period for Nita Spilhaus, a German immigrant and fond painter of statuesque trees in luscious Cape landscapes. Due to her German heritage, Spilhaus was cast down by the society that she had made her home, and after her brother was accused of being a
German conspirator, she was asked by the police not to paint outdoors. As a plein airist at heart, Spilhaus, now bound to her studio, took reluctantly to painting portraits and still lifes instead of her usual verdant landscapes. Flowers soon became Spilhaus’s favourite still life subject. She chose to paint small, delicate flowers over large, decorative ones. Still Life with Carnations, lot 733, illustrates the skilled craft of Spihaus’s blooms, which, as Esmé Berman asserts, possess ‘a sparkle of clean bright colour.’ Art critic, Magda Sauer, comments further on Spilhaus’s flower renditions that, “no-one has produced better their fragile grace and freshness.”

- Berman, E., Art and Artists of South Africa, A. A. Balkema, Cape Town, 1974, p 281 & 282
- Elliot, P., Nita Spilhaus, Peter Elliot, Cape Town, 2015
- Sauer, M., Nita Spilhaus in Our Art 1, Lantern, Pretoria, 1959, p127 – 131

SOUTH AFRICAN