IMPONENTE || Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (South African painter) 1886 - 1957
Cape Farmland, 1930
casein
55.9 x 50.8 cm. (22 x 20 in.)
inscribed, signed and dated "aan...de Kock van J. H. Pierneef 1930' (lower left)
private collection

Catalogue Note Bonhams
The lonely farmstead, set beneath magnificent mountains and lofty skies, is one of Pierneef's most compelling themes. The Cape landscape, as well as the Cape Dutch architecture common amongst farmhouses, proved stimulating to the Transvaal painter whose "paintings of Cape Dutch homes reveal his silent appreciation of the beauty of light on their white-washed walls; of the contrast between this whiteness and the dark, worn, thatched roofs; of the oak trees lavishly covered with green leaves influencing the architecture; and of the effect of the massive blue mountains and... skies in the background" (Nel 1990, p.194).

One of the pair bears a striking resemblance to the linocut Die Tweelinge (The Twins) (in the collection of the Pretoria City Council and illustrated in de Villiers 1997, p.229).

The inscription to "de Kock" is likely to refer to Hubertus Claudius De Kock, who worked as an editor at Die Volkstem newspaper in Pretoria (for which Pierneef did illustrations). They became firm friends and Pierneef is known to have gifted work to him.

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Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef) 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.
Most of his landscapes were of the South African highveld, which provided a lifelong source of inspiration for him. Pierneef's style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines and colour to present the harmony and order in nature. This resulted in formalised, ordered and often-monumental view of the South African landscape, uninhabited and with dramatic light and colour.
Pierneef's work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George VI Art Gallery, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery.