‘The Smoker’ is an atmospheric oil-on-canvas painting in shades of blue and purple.
Gerard Sekoto was born on 9 December 1913 at Botshabelo mission near Middelburg, Mpumulanga. He studied teaching in Pietersburg (now Polokwane), but moved to Johannesburg in 1938 to become an artist. He held his first solo exhibition in 1939. In 1940, the Johannesburg Art Gallery purchased one of his works. This was the first painting by a black artist to enter a museum collection. Sekoto left South Africa in 1947 for France, never to return to South Africa. He died in Paris in 1993.