Irma Stern, (South African, 1894-1966)

Zulu Girl with Cocks 33 x 26.5in (84 x 67cm)

Zulu Girl with Cocks
signed and dated 'Irma Stern 1954' (upper left)
oil on canvas
33 x 26.5in (84 x 67cm)

Provenance
Acquired from the Adler Fielding Galleries, Johannesburg in 1961;
The collection of Dr Paul Stein, Johannesburg;
By descent to the current owners.

Exhibited
Sao Paulo, 4th Bienal, 1957, no.19 (possibly)
Cape Town, Galleria Albina, November 1959, no.19
Munich, Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt, February 1960, no.15
Johannesburg, Adler Fielding Galleries, November 1961, no.7

Irma Stern seems to have made two paintings with similar titles and subject-matter in the 1950s which, not surprisingly, appear to have been confused in the early sources. In 1957 she submitted 'Swazi (duma triba Zulu) com galo' or 'Swazi (from the Zulu tribe) with Rooster' amongst other work to the Sao Paolo Bienal in Brazil.

The artist then pasted a photograph of the present painting in her Scrapbook and annotated it 'Zulu Girl with Cocks, 1959': this date, obviously, would preclude its inclusion in the Bienal two years earlier. The confusion is compounded by Stern's inscription of the date in the top left corner of this painting which could be read, like the Scrapbook annotation, as '1959', but more often as '1954'.

The change in ethnic identity of the two women portrayed, and the number of roosters described in the sources might not be significant. But the fact that the Sao Paolo work measured only 67.3 x 54.6cm as against the larger scale of the present work, determines that it is likely that there were two different works.

This painting is first noticed in reviews in 1959. Die Burger of 11 November 1959 picks it out as no.19 in the major retrospective of Irma Stern's work at the Galleria Albina in Tulbagh Square, Cape Town, describing it as "manjifieke" and dedicating its single illustration to the work. And Matthys Bokhorst in 'An Instructive Show of Irma Stern's Art' in the Cape Times of 16 November 1959, described the painting, then under the title 'Native Girl with Cocks', as:

"An outburst of flaming colours which shows better than anything else the typical Stern technique of broad palette-knife work, alternating with the most temperamental strokes of the brush ever seen in South Africa."

This description of a loose painterly technique explains why the date is so difficult to read, 1954 or 1959. Both reviews, however, state that this work was included in the Sao Paulo Biennale late in 1957. So either the work was incorrectly measured for the Sao Paulo exhibition or the Die Burger and Cape Times reviewers have confused two works of similar title.

Bokhorst mentioned in his review that the painting had not been shown in South Africa before the 1959 exhibition and a work of this title is conspicuous by its absence from the exhibition lists of shows between 1954 and 1959 that are preserved in the Scrapbook. After the November 1959 show, the painting was next exhibited at the prestigious Irma Stern exhibition at the Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt in Munich in February and March 1960 as #5 'Native Girl with Cocks'. This show subsequently went on to the Berlin City Hall which Stern noted was her first official invitation to exhibit in the city after the War. Back in South Africa, the painting is listed as #7 'Zulu Girl with Cocks' in the Adler Fielding Galleries exhibition in Johannesburg in November 1961, at the considerable sum of 200 guineas. The photograph annotation in Stern's Scrapbook that records this title and the date '1959' also indicates that the painting was in the collection of 'Dr P. Stein, Johb' who bought it from this exhibition.

Irma Stern did travel to the Eastern Cape early in 1959 (although not, as far as is known, in 1954). A number of drawings dated 1959 of turban-clad, pipe-smoking and other women characteristic of the former Transkei are preserved in the Irma Stern Museum. But the original title of the painting 'Zulu Girl with Cocks' is significant. On this trip, Irma Stern seems to have travelled as far as the Pondoland/Natal border. She made a painting of a 'Pondo Girl' that was sent to Israel in February 1959. And the 'Zulu Girl' painting in the Irma Stern Museum (ISC 37) clearly depicts a young Cele woman from the Natal side of the border. This painting, incidentally, seems to have been worked up in the studio from a field drawing (ISC 1149) and it is probable that the 'Zulu Girl with Cocks' was also based on a drawing made in the field. As for the Zulu (or Swazi) identity of this young woman, there is little to confirm this in the painting but the detail of the hair falling over her brow looks to be of the same ochre colour as the hair in the Irma Stern Museum's 'Zulu Girl'.

If there was an original drawing for the 'Zulu Girl with Cocks' it has not been identified. But the "flaming colours", the "broad palette-knife work" and "the most temperamental strokes of the brush", noted by Bokhorst, were likely deployed in the studio to transform a curious genre subject into this highly expressive image. Quite what Irma Stern intended to communicate in this painting is not clear. It is certainly far removed from "the lovely fairy-tale outlook on native life", as she described her early work in a letter of 1955.

In fact, in her response to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Award in June 1960, Stern said of her painting 'Intrigue', that came from this same trip to the Eastern Cape/Natal region, that it "is symbolic of the unrest I sensed in the countryside". Whatever its precise meaning, 'Zulu Girl with Cocks' is certainly an "outburst" of flamboyant energy that attributes extraordinary presence and power to the young female subject.

We are grateful to Professor Michael Godby for his assistance in the compilation of the above footnote.