As a young student Preller had indeed been fascinated by the...

As a young student Preller had indeed been fascinated by the work of the French Post-Impressionists Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and Paul Gauguin (1848–1903). Their use of bright arbitrary colour and their imaginative transformation of nature appealed to his own artistic impulses. In South Africa there were no opportunities to study the masters of European modernism, and it is therefore not surprising that Preller would have found local inspiration in the examples of Irma Stern (1894–1966) and Maggie Laubser (1886–1973). It was Stern’s example that had the greater influence on him, and, as Esmé Berman has observed, his early works, notably those of his Swaziland period, are heavily influenced by her style. This charcoal drawing is very similar in style, mood and treatment to many of Stern’s drawings in this medium, but Preller’s own individual style, marked by a plumpness and a tapering of forms, is clearly in evidence. He died in Pretoria (Tshwane), in 1975.

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