12 bronzes from the Estate of Danie de Jager (1936 – 2003) go on auction

There is a consignment of 12 animal bronzes by De Jager, among them a 1989 maquette of Shawu the elephant at Sun City (estimate R20 000 – R30 000). Presented in a standalone session, the 36 drawings by Alexis Preller were acquired by De Jager from Preller’s lover, Guna Massyn. The consignment includes preparatory sketches for well-known paintings like Flower King I, The Poet Prince and Hieratic Women. Executed with refined confidence, estimates for these small works range from R1 000 to R5 000.

Danie de Jager, who pursued sculpture his whole life, struggled at the outset of his career. He doggedly entered every competition he could until he finally won his first major commission. This was the Hertzog Monument in Bloemfontein which kept him at work for the greater part of the 1960s. Later his reputation was such that that he could rely on patrons approaching him directly, and he had to employ a number of assistants to cope with the volume of work. Yet, his sculpture is not widely represented in South African museums, although immensely popular with the general public.

De Jager explored the great freedom often given to him by his clients to conceptualize a new commission, but he was also quick to adapt his style to their demands, with naturalistic images of historical figures and political dignitaries, wildlife studies for Sun City, and abstract pieces at such venues as Bela Bela, Polokwane and O R Tambo International Airport. His rendering of the iconic South African springbok is particularly desired by collectors.

His most famous sculpture is arguably Shawu, the life-size elephant at the entrance to the Lost City Palace Hotel at Sun City. De Jager stated that Shawu was cast in Italy because only there could something of that size be undertaken in the ceramic shell technique, which would also have facilitated the detailed replication of the texture of the elephant’s hide. But it is notable that the extensive editions of this work on smaller scale, expensive, but eagerly collected, was cast locally by Mike Edwards at the IMI Sculpture Studio at Lanseria.

Oscar the Seal, at the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town became another favourite of the public, especially because Nelson Mandela inaugurated the sculpture.

Later in life De Jager gained widespread international status with such prominent commissions as the Flying Horses at the Atlantis Royal Hotel in the Bahamas, the Water at last group of camels at the Royal Mirage Hotel, Jumeirah, Dubai, and the Arabian Horses for the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai. His oeuvre spans sculpting a war memorial at Delville Wood, France and as well as a series of Impala heads adorning the façade of the Impala Building on 5ht Avenue, New York. His clients included such luminaries as Bill and Hilary Clinton, Margret Thatcher, His Highness Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, Cliff Richards, Natalie Cole, Sting, Michael Jackson, and the actor, Robert de Niro.

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