MAGNÁNIMO || Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (South African painter) 1886 - 1957
The Baobab Tree, s.d. 
oil on canvas
112 x 142.5 cm. (44.13 x 56.13 in.)
private collection

Catalogue Note Bonhams
This painting is unquestionably a product of Pierneef at his finest. The majestic baobab tree stands proud, dominating the landscape, with the five people at the foot of the tree and the signs of human habitation in the background dwarfed by comparison. It is reasonable to assume that The baobab tree was painted around 1934. It is certainly consistent with Pierneef’s style at the time and there is another painting of a baobab tree painted in1934 which in terms of style and composition is very similar to The baobab tree.

The colours used in the painting are naturalistic but with overtones of the symbolic quality that Pierneef also strove for - a legacy of the influence on Pierneef of the Dutch artist and philosopher of art, Willem Van Konijnenburg (1868 – 1943). The early influences of Art Nouveau, particularly evident in the tracery of the branches, are here fully assimilated into Pierneef’s mature and assured style. As can so clearly be seen in this painting, Pierneef did not strive to capture a particular time of day or atmospheric effect in his landscapes - instead, he strove to depict the most typical and essential. The tree and, indeed the landscape and figures, have an emblematic quality. This painting, therefore, is a magnificent example of Pierneef’s achievement in creating a landscape painting that is uniquely and essentially South African.

Te Water was born in Graaff-Reinet in 1887 and died in Cape Town in 1964. He received a higher education in Cape Town, Edinburgh and Cambridge where he took the LL.B. degree in 1910. He served as High Commissioner in London from 1929 to 1939, as well as representing South Africa at the League of Nations, becoming President of the League Assembly in 1933. He afterwards represented South Africa in several countries and from 1951 to 1956 was the director of the South African Reserve Bank. He also acquitted himself well in several spheres of public life and was Chairman of the South African Association of Arts from 1941 to 1947.

While Te Water was serving as the High Commissioner in London, Pierneef was given the commission to paint the murals for South Africa House in London. On 27 June 1933 the Pierneef family left Pretoria for London. Pierneef completed the murals by May 1934. Pierneef accepted a further commission from Te Water to paint five works for the dining-room in South Africa House. The room was officially opened on 31 May 1934 and was known as the ‘Pierneef Room’.

Charles te Water was close friends with the artist and June te Water, his granddaughter, recounts that on a visit to Pierneef’s studio her grandfather saw The baobab tree languishing, unfinished in a corner of the atelier. Te Water encouraged Pierneef that the work was a fine painting and that he should complete the picture. This he duly did and then presented the painting to te Water.

The 1948 Tate exhibition was the first major undertaking by the South African Association of Arts. A panel of Association members with the assistance of John Rothenstein of the Tate formed the selection committee and the exhibition subsequently toured various centres in the United Kingdom and Europe

We are grateful to Joe Dolby at the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, for his assistance with the preparation of this catalogue entry.

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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.