Maggie Laubser, born in 1886 in a rural South Africa, is credited alongside Irma Stern as a pioneer of South African modernist art. The painting Meidjie (n.d.) was likely painted of a young girl who lived on or nearby Laubser’s family farm in Oortmanspost, where Laubser lived due to personal financial constraints after her patron’s death. Laubser painted with a sense of empathy and appreciation for the people around her, many of whom she developed a strong personal relationship with due to the many years she spent on the rural farm, isolated and removed from the urban centre of Cape Town. In this tender depiction, the young girl gazes out at the viewer with bright, copper-coloured eyes. Laubser seats her subject facing the viewer with a charmingly impish and defiant air about her. The artist’s focus on such a subject speaks to the great respect she had for the people who surrounded her.
—Heba Elkayal
