IRMA STERN | MADEIRAN MAN

Sotheby’s, Stephan Welz & Co., Johannesburg, 8 November 1999, Lot 586, titled Man with a Blue Jack and Hat

Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Seeking an escape from her troubled marriage to Dr Johannes Prinz, as well as inspiration and new subject matter, Stern spent three months in Madeira in 1931, from September until November, an island she had passed many times on her voyages between South Africa and Europe. This trip marks a key milestone in Stern’s private life and professional development. Far from finding refuge from her personal problems, she was treated for a nervous breakdown shortly after arriving on the island. Yet Stern was incredibly prolific during her time in Madeira: her mental anguish translates clearly in the harsh colour and turbulent rhythms of this body of work, but she also finally masters her use of light and colour. Her Madeiran paintings are undoubtedly some of her best, in particular her portraits of men which celebrate the light, colour, and simple way of life on the island. In October, she wrote to her friend Roza van Gelderen: "I have made a good many pictures – I think you will like...Now I am working in a little delightful fisher village – am a bit overworked – as I have not had much to distract me. I go on working all day... But how I ever can go away from here and feel happy again I do not know – it is so full of beauty and colour and life".

Stern struggled with the patriarchal nature of Madeiran culture, and as a worldly Jewish woman she felt isolated in such a traditional Catholic society. For the first time her portraits from this period are predominantly of men, "The women are like the cows - they work in the fields - in the houses - they drag heavy loads – they bring a number of children into the world and look upon it without joy themselves – grown sour somehow with deep lines around the mouths – in quite young faces already... the heavy incense-laden air of the Catholic Church prevents them from breathing”. The Madeiran men, on the other hand, undoubtedly reminded Stern of the brief romance she shared with Portuguese novellist Hippolyto Raposo in 1923, “the man below – whispers words... as sweet as sugar... this

controlled fire – just like the wine – like the gaze of the men - a shamelessly lovely and restrained glow".

In November 1931 Stern departed for Europe on the Kenilworth Castle; this would be her last visit to Germany before the Nazis came to power, and exhibitions including her Madeiran paintings followed in Berlin, Paris, The Hague and London before she returned to Cape Town in February 1932. Her short marriage to Johannes Prinz was for all intents and purposes over, and their divorce was finalised in 1934. Stern did return to Madeira twice more later in her career, and exhibited some of these earlier works in her solo exhibition, ‘My Three Madeiras 1932[sic] 1950 1963’ at the South African Association of the Arts, Cape Town, in 1964.