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Christa Zaat



Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (South African painter) 1886 - 1957
Hartbeespoort Dam, 1946
oil on board
43.5 x 59 cm. (17.13 x 23.25 in.)
signed and dated '-Pierneef.46.' (lower left); inscribed 'Mrs JA Louw' and bears Schweickerdt Art Gallery label (verso)
private collection

Catalogue Note Bonhams
In 1929 the artist received a career-defining commission from the South African Railways. The consulting architects for the Johannesburg Station, Gordon Leith and Gerard Moerdijk, were well acquainted with Pierneef's work, and asked him to paint thirty-two panels to adorn the concourse. The murals took three years to complete, and were widely acclaimed when they were unveiled in 1932.

However, the panels were left open to the elements and soon started to show signs of deterioration. Pierneef was called back in 1946 to restore the works. Revisiting the commission inspired the artist to return to some of his favourite compositions. Hartbeespoort Dam depicts the same scene as the twentieth panel, but it reveals how Pierneef's aesthetic had developed. The bold colours and strongly delineated shapes that we see in the railway panel have given way to a freer and more expressive style. The palette has become muted, incorporating the soft purples and blues that would come to define his late works.

The responsibility for the advancement of tourism in the 1930s and 40s lay primarily with the South African railways and harbours. The commission stated that the panels should show the best the country had to offer, both in terms of natural beauty and historic importance. Hartbeespoort Dam was a natural choice to promote as a tourist destination. Recently opened in 1923, it represented the sophistication of South Africa's engineering. Pierneef depicts the dam in the distance, across the winding valley. This view was specifically selected, as the scene that would have confronted tourists as they approached from Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The art critic and linguist, Prof. A.C. Bouman, was greatly impressed by Johannesburg panels. He argued that the landscapes transcended naturalistic representation, communicating the essence of South Africa. In his seminal text, Painters of South Africa, he described the commission thus:

"Each of the works contains something symbolic. Each is the facet of a cut crystal which the sharp cutter, Pierneef, has taken in hand. That crystal is South Africa."

Bouman was not alone in appreciating the symbolic quality of Pierneef's art. Fellow critic, T. Roos, believed that Pierneef, more than any other artist, understood what made the country unique, and that his paintings were visual expressions of this affinity:

"He is teaching us to see, understand and to appreciate the rolling miles of veld with the blue mountains in the distance, the strange almost fantastic trees that dot the landscape of our own land" (T Roos).

* * *

Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef) (13 August 1886 Pretoria – 14 November 1957 Pretoria), was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. His distinctive style is widely recognised and his work was greatly influenced by the South African landscape.

Pierneef was born in Pretoria, from Dutch and Boer parentage. He started his high school career at the Staatsmodelschool (literally "model state school") there, where he took his first art classes, but it was interrupted by the Second Boer War. Due to the war, the Pierneef family decided to move back to the Netherlands in 1901. While there he studied at the Rotterdamse Kunstakademie. During this time, he also came into contact with the works of the old masters, which left a lasting impression on him.
Pierneef returned to Pretoria at the age of 18, where he met with and was encouraged by already established South African artists such as his godfather Anton van Wouw, Hugo Naude and Frans Oerder. His first public exhibition, where his work was generally well received, was with van Wouw and Naude in 1902. He worked at the State Library during the night for almost ten years and painted in his studio during the day. In 1910, Pierneef married Agatha Delen, a woman 12 years his senior.
Pierneef held his first solo exhibition in 1913, to great critical acclaim, some even describing his work as that of a genius, which inspired him greatly. His second solo exhibition was held two years later and was also very well received. During this period, he also did various illustrations for a periodicals and books.
In 1918, Pierneef left the State Library and started a career as an art lecturer at the Heidelberg (South Africa) College of Education. During the following year, he also started teaching drawing at the Pretoria College of Education. These positions gave him the opportunity to focus on his art and he participated in many successful solo and group exhibitions during 1920 to 1921. Due to the recognition that he received, Pierneef realised that he was setting the trend for a unique South African style. Personally, it was a difficult time in his life – his wife Agatha suffered from a mental disorder and also started to lose her sight.
Pierneef resigned as lecturer and became a full-time painter in 1923, due to differences of opinion regarding the curriculum with the Department of Education.
Pierneef visited South-West Africa (now Namibia) from 1923 to 1924, where he sketched extensively for paintings that would later be completed in his studio. These would later be considered some of his best works.
Despite his successes, he was experiencing some financial difficulties, and had to resort to other jobs to make ends meet. During one of these, an advertising project to sell the land around Hartebeespoort dam, he met his future second wife, a Dutch woman named May Schoep. Pierneef divorced Agatha in 1923 and married May in 1924.
The couple visited Europe from 1925 to 1926, where Pierneef promoted his art and also studied the newest art movements. He also held a solo exhibition in the Netherlands, where his Bushmen drawings drew great attention.
In 1927 Pierneef's daughter was born and he held a very successful exhibition of 86 of his works in Pretoria. However, during his solo exhibition the following year, he had some abstract modern works on display, which were very badly received, compelling him to revert to his old style. His daughter's name was Marita ("Mickie") Pierneef. May Pieneef (née Shoep) was the sister of Albertha Louise du Preez, nickname Be (née Schoep) who was married to Dr Jan Dirk Gysbert du Preez (a doctor, graduated in the Netherlands and Maths genius), who brought May Schoep and their mother, Wietje, to South Africa from the Netherlands, when he married Be.
Pierneef accepted a commission in 1929 to paint 32 panels for the interior of the then-new Johannesburg Railway Station, a task he completed by 1932. The panels are now to be seen at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch (having previously been displayed in Graaff-Reinet) and are considered to be some of his best work.
In 1933, he was commissioned to do seven murals for South Africa House, the South African embassy on Trafalgar Square, London. Pierneef completed this work in 1934.