Tormented Trees, Mitchells Pass
Notes : In the mid-1950s, Erik Laubscher took up the position as a colour consultant for Plascon, the paint company. Euphemistically this saw him move away from the uncertainty of supporting himself and his young family by the sale of his paintings to a steady salaried position. He mentioned in a recent interview that this was “a strange situation. After Paris you become a man behind the counter”.1
This new employ however also had benefits for Erik as an artist – he was released from the need to sell pleasing works of a lesser standard. He also found himself having to make frequent trips to country towns which provided him continually with renewed visual stimulus.
On one such business trip Erik travelled through Mitchell’s Pass which had been devastated by a recent veld fire – the “tormented trees” he saw sparked a recurring theme in his work.2 In this composition the twisted blackened trees are “his vision of an almost prehistoric African landscape…an impression of mystery, of anguished desolation.”3
This painting, titled Tormented Trees, Mitchell’s Pass, was the first in the series – another forms part of the IZIKO South African National Gallery Collection in Cape Town.4
1 Fransen, Hans. Erik Laubscher: A life in Art. SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, 2009, page 68
2 Ibid
3 Ibid, page 73
4 Confirmed in email correspondence between the author and Erik Laubscher dated 5 April 2013
