An Ode to Brothers

Lot 6 | Clifford Peter | R 7 000 - 10 000

An ode to brothers: one portrayed with tender, dreamlike sensitivity, the other devoted to safeguarding a legacy. In Clifford Peter, William Timlin captures his beloved brother with a softness that feels lifted from a storybook. This portrait merges Timlin’s fantastical imagination and his devotion to those closest to him, where a portrait drawn with affection becomes part of the same enchanted universe as fairies, castles, and dreamscapes.

Clifford, in turn, became the quiet steward of Timlin’s pieces after the artist’s passing in 1943, keeping the collection together and later passing it on to his daughter-in-law and grandchildren. When this collection finally reached the market in 1987, De Beers acquired the collection and placed it on long-term loan to the William Humphreys Art Gallery. For nearly forty years, this trove, combined with WHAG’s own holdings, formed the largest public gathering of Timlin’s fantastical worlds in South Africa.

Auction

Enchanted Worlds: The Timlin Collection

4 to 18 September 2025 

SALE ENQUIRIES 
Johannesburg: jhb@aspireart.net | +27 21 418 0765

SPECIALISTS

Sarah Sinisi
sarah@aspireart.net

Carina Jansen
carina@aspireart.net

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