Irma Stern was born on 2 October 1894 in Schweizer-Reneke, a small town in the Transvaal, of German-Jewish parents. She died in 1966at the age of 71.
In 1913 Irma left South Africa to study art at the Weimar Academy in Germany but she later transferred her studies to the Levin-Funcke studio in Berlin. However, it was only when she met German Expressionist Max Pechstein, that she felt she had found a true mentor. Between 1918 and 1919 her works were included in a number of exhibitions in Germany and she held her first solo exhibition in Berlin in 1919 at the Fritz Gurlitt Gallery, after which she returned to South Africa..
Throughout her life, Irma Stern traveled extensively in Europe and explored Southern Africa, Zanzibar and the Congo. These trips provided a wide range of subject matter for her paintings and gave her opportunities to acquire and assemble a collection of artefacts for her home. On Irma Stern’s death in 1966, her home in Rondebosch and its contents became a national legacy. In 1972 the Irma Stern Museum was opened.
Today Irma Stern’s work fetches impressive prices at auctions. In 2011, her portrait of an Arab priest at Bonhams in London was sold for over three million euros - a record to this day for the work of a South African artist.