A collection of Constant Stuart Larrabee’s work similar to the nine photographs to be auctioned at Stephan Welz & Co. in Cape Town on Tuesday 17 February, reside at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Constance Stuart Larrabee may be unknown to many locals, but the fearless and avant-garde South African portrait photographer and photojournalist who chronicled the Ndebele, amongst others, and collaborated with Alan Paton on Cry the Beloved Country, has a body of work that is internationally prized, with much of it housed in the Smithsonian Institution.
The Ndebele photographs to be auctioned were acquired by the seller directly from the photographer, and all are either signed or copyrighted. There are two sets of four unframed photographs, which are valued at R50 000 – R65 000 per set, as well as a single print valued at R15 000 – R19 000. There is also a single photograph of the Johannesburg Social Center, 1948, for sale at R15 000 – R19 000.
Click here to listen to Sophie Louise Fröhlich, Head of Photography at Stephan Welz & Co, on SABC Digital New talk about the Ndebele work by Constance Stuart Larabbee, to be auctioned.
From Royals to Ndebele to Soldiers
Born in England in 1914, Larrabee grew up in Pretoria, studied photography in Europe and began her career photographing Pretoria’s white elite as well as high profile visitors to South Africa, including Noel Coward and British royalty. In the 1940’s, she began chronicling various tribal people in Southern Africa, and became particularly interested in the Ndebele, with whom she spent much time. “Not only did her works give us a valuable record of a vanishing people, but they did so with incredible dignity and beauty,” said Sophie-Louise Fröhlich, Head of Photography at Stephan Welz & Co. “The composition of these photographs was arresting and atypical for its time, artistically highlighting the natural lines and geometry so distinctive of the Ndebele.”
Larrabee’s acclaimed exhibitions led to national attention and soon after, her appointment as a war photographer during World War II. As South Africa’s first female war correspondent, she accompanied the South African 6th Armoured Division and the American Sixth Army as they pushed through Europe, photographing the Allied invasion of the south of France and combat in Italy and Egypt. She later married an American and settled on the East Coast of the United States.
Paton Portolio
In 1948, Larrabee produced a portfolio of photographs on the author Alan Paton as well as landscapes of the Natal countryside for his book Cry, the Beloved Country. Her photographic exhibition called Tribal Women of South Africa at the American Museum of Natural History in New York led to many more exhibitions, including a retrospective of her work at the South African National Gallery in 1979. In 1986, the Smithsonian hosted an exhibition entitled Go Well, My Child: Photographs by Constance Stuart Larrabee in Collaboration with Alan Paton. The catalogue from this exhibition accompanies the framed Johannesburg Social Center photograph on the auction and displayed in the auction catalogue. On exhibit were 80 of Larrabee’s black and white prints united with captions from Cry, the Beloved Country.
Larrabee ultimately donated her African work to the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian, her World War II photos to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and her United States Eastern Shore work to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in 1997, before her death in 2000.
“The Ndebele photographs, which are a part of Larrabee’s rich legacy, provide a priceless humanistic view of this culture before it was influenced by the West,” said Stephan Welz & Co.’s Fröhlich. “We are hoping to see both local and international interest in these works, from those institutions, galleries and private collectors who already own a body of her work as well as from other collectors who are keen to acquire a piece of photographic history.”
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN: The auction will take place in The Great Cellar, Alphen Estate, Alphen Drive, Constantia on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 February 2015. Catalogues are available from both the Cape Town and Johannesburg offices as well as on their website.  For more information, contact 021-794-6461 or e-mail ct@stephanwelzandco.co.za
Lot 501
CONSTANCE STUART LARRABEE: NDEBELE WOMAN CARRYING A BABY, 1940s, NDEBELE WOMAN SEATED, 1940s, NDEBELE WOMAN, 1940s, NDEBELE CHILD, SOUTH AFRICA, 1946, SILVER GELATIN PRINTS, PHOTOGRAPHER’S COPYRIGHT STAMP ON THE REVERSE, ONE SIGNED AND INSCRIBED WITH THE TITLE AND DATE ON THE REVERSE
R50 000 – R65 000
Lot 505
CONSTANCE STUART LARRABEE: NDEBELE WOMAN LAUGHING, 1940s, PRINTED IN 1988, SILVER GELATIN PRINT, PHOTOGRAPHER’S COPYRIGHT STAMP ON THE REVERSE
R15 000 – R19 000
Lot 510
CONSTANCE STUART LARRABEE): JOHANNESBURG SOCIAL CENTER, 1948, SILVER GELATIN PRINT, SIGNED IN THE MARGIN, INSCRIBED WITH THE TITLE AND DATE ON THE REVERSE, PHOTOGRAPHER’S COPYRIGHT STAMP ON THE REVERSE
R15 000 – R19 000
Lot 514
CONSTANCE STUART LARRABEE: NDEBELE, PRETORIA DISTRICT, 1947, NDEBELE CEREMONIAL OBJECTS, 1946, NDEBELE WOMAN, 1947 AND NDEBELE GIRLS, 1940s, SILVER GELATIN PRINTS, PHOTOGRAPHER’S COPYRIGHT STAMP ON THE REVERSE, THREE SIGNED AND INSCRIBED WITH THE DATE IN THE MARGIN OR ON THE REVERSE,
ONE INSCRIBED WITH THE TITLE IN THE REVERSE
R50 000 – R65 000
