Title: Mieliepap Eater 1907
Medium: Bronze
Van Wouw used the same model here as for his figurine Shangaan. The mealiepap eater, which is undated, was therefore probably also created at the same time as the Shangaan, namely 1907.
Over the years Van Wouw and others have had many of these casted, the best by Nisini casted in Rome. We are lucky to have one of the pieces casted while van Wouw was living and were able to work it off by hand before it was sold. The sculptures casted post-humous at Vignali’s foundry in Pretoria is quite different because of repairs to the mould made by Professor Robert Bain in the 60s.
There are obvious differences in the finish, as well as drastic deviations from the original form, such as making the marble base an integral part of the small sculpture and representing the right hand of the figurine as not scraping with the spoon inside the pot, but rather holding a little stick above the mouth of the pot, as if he was going to lift some porridge from it (Duffey 2008:71-72).
