The sale made a total of £1.7m, and also established new world record prices on auction for eight artists.
Bonhams director Giles Peppiatt said: “Watussi Chief’s Wife is a wonderful and moving work that reflects Irma Stern’s respect for a sitter whose innate nobility the artist clearly deeply admired. The bidding and the final price reflected its importance. I was pleased that under such difficult circumstances globally, we were able to hold such a successful sale.”
Stern (1894-1966), who lived in Cape Town for most of her life, painted Watussi Chief’s Wife in 1946 in what was then the Belgian Congo. The sitter was a member of the royal court of the Rwandan King Yuhi V Musinga who was deposed by the Belgians in 1931, and exiled to Moba near Albertville. The artist has depicted her wearing a traditional Rwandan dress.
Another Stern work, Still life of roses and earthenware, sold for £87000.
Other auction highlights included:
* An extremely rare archive of images taken from the photographic studio of ZJS Ndimande and Sons in Greytown during the apartheid era, sold for £40000.
* Still life by Demas Nwoko (Nigerian, born 1935): £187000.
* Ogolo by Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu (Nigerian, 1917-1994): £87000.