Self-portrait Anton van Wouw

A bronze self-portrait bust by the South African artist Anton van Wouw (1862-1945). In 1937, Van Wouw was interviewed about this self-portrait, during his interview it was related to the journalist that Van Wouw was 63 years of age when he commenced the work in 1925, but it was only completed in 1927. Van Wouw claimed that the bronze Self-portrait was intended as his headstone. After his death in 1945, according to his bequest the bronze portrait was surmounted as a headstone to his grave, but it was unfortunately stolen in 1981 and never recovered. This portrait in the possession of the University of Pretoria was cast posthumously by the Fernando Marinelli Foundry in Florence in 1976. Short biography: Anton van Wouw was born on 26 December 1862 in Driebergen in the Netherlands. After school, Van Wouw began as a stucco worker in Delft where he learnt the art of sculpture. He studied at the Rotterdam Academy for Arts, but stopped his studies to join his father and brother in South Africa. After having a hard time as an artist in the early beginnings of his career of the then Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic 1852-1902) Van Wouw was finally recognised for his work when Sammy Marks (1884-1920), a Lithuanian-born South African industrialist and financier, commissioned Van Wouw to create the famous Kruger Memorial, currently situated on Church Square in the centre of South Africa's Capital city Pretoria. From there, Van Wouw's art went from strength to strength creating over 10 large bronze monuments, as well as more than 100 other sculptures in his lifetime. Anton van Wouw passed away in Pretoria in 1945.