Business Tech reports that 'Dahlias', painted in 1947, is a peak-period Stern depicting a favoured flower and additionally claims an impeccable provenance.

Originally owned by renowned art collectors Ben and Cecilia Jaffe, Stern’s brilliantly coloured oil was acquired by noted Cape Town collector Count Luccio Labia in 1994 at a sale handled by auctioneer Stephan Welz, who in 2009 helped establish Strauss & Co.

Part of a consignment of 22 paintings from the Labia Family Collection, Dahlias exhibits Stern’s masterful brushwork and authoritative handling of paint.

Dahlias were a recurrent subject in Stern’s paintings from the 1930s and 1940s. The artist produced five such still lifes featuring these cut flowers, of which this painting is the fifth.

The catalogue in the October sale includes 20 works in various media from the Peter and Regina Strack Collection, notably three rare oils by Adolph Jentsch.

Aside from the Stern, other notable works released from the Labia Family Collection include an important landscape painting from 1918 by Pieter Wenning. The Yellow House: Bishopscourt in Winter (estimate R500 000 – 700 000).

British modernist Ivon Hitchens’s Felled Trees (estimate R500 000 – 700 000) was painted in 1946 and originates from the same period as a work held in the Tate Collection.

Also on auction are Stern’s Castle, Madeira (estimate R2 – R3 million) dates from 1963 and depicts the Fort of São João Baptista do Pico with a tropical palette of warm ochres, yellows, pinks and red, off-set against a lively sea of emerald green tones.

An earlier portrait from 1949, Woman with Orange Headscarf (estimate R250 000 – 350 000) also forms part of the release. Proceeds from the sale of these works will benefit the Irma Stern Trust.

Business Tech