Cecil Higgs (South African 1898 - 1986) ROCKPOOL, SEA POINT

Estimate

R15,000 - R20,000

Cecil Higgs (South African 1898 - 1986) ROCKPOOL, SEA POINT

More Information

signed and dated 1940
oil on canvas
46 by 34cm; 73 by 62 by 4,5cm including frame

PROVENANCE
The Orient Boutique Hotel Collection

Marine subjects became the focus of many of Cecil Higg’s compositions after she moved to Sea Point in 1946. Higgs explored images of shells, sea anemones, rock pools amongst other marine related imagery that soon became synonymous with her work. Higg’s imagery became progressively more abstract through her interest and exploration of the interchange of form and colour, the materiality of copious/generous amounts of paint applied to the canvas surface with a palette knife instead of a brush, along with the effects of light across the built-up and textured canvas surface. Further explained by Esmé Berman (1975:95):

“Although the paintings which resulted were all developed from an objective visual point of departure, they are never mere descriptions of the subject. Conversely, it is only very rarely that Cecil Higgs converts her subject matter into totally abstract conceptions. It is the subtle equilibrium between the material and the imagined, the recognisable and the unknown, that invests her images with their compelling quality.”

Berman, E. The Story of South African Painting. AA Balkema, Cape Town, 1975
Holloway, V. South African Art Library: Cecil Higgs. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, Johannesburg, 1974