Notes

Grace Anderson was born in Klerksdorp in the then Transvaal (now the town falls in North West Provence) and later lived in the Eastern Cape where her father was a land surveyor. She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Arts in London at the age of 16 and, being a minor, had to be chaperoned to England to undertake her studies. One of her subjects was heraldry and she later designed the coat-of-arms of the University of Pretoria. Back in South Africa, Anderson lectured at the Teachers’ Training College in Johannesburg where she met Walter Battiss in the early 1930s. She then went on to become an inspector of arts at schools in the province.

In March 1940, Anderson and Battiss were married and a year later they moved into their Norman Eaton-designed house in 20th Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria. By all accounts the couple had a close and loving relationship and Battiss was devastated by Anderson’s death in 1975.

Provenance

Estate Walter Battiss.