Notes

JH Pierneef is perhaps best known for his still, sky-stretching acacias in the veld, trees that more often than not formed a beautiful, natural tracery against his chosen skyscape. But Henk’s early passion was for the Highveld willow tree. Whether endlessly sketching the example that grew in his garden on De Waal Street, Pretoria, or others along the Apies River, the artist was enthralled by the tree’s ever-changing silhouette, its seasonal transformations, and its decorative potential. ‘The willow is the most beautiful tree that I know’, he declared as early as 1911, having depicted the tree in a number of linocuts that went on show that year in the first exhibition of The Individualists at the Pretoria Town Hall.¹ By the time of his first solo exhibition at the JH de Bussy Building in 1913, moreover, the recurrence of the motif, albeit it in different styles and media, allowed a delighted reviewer to recognise and then admire his ‘cult of the willow’.²

Pierneef’s enthusiasm for the willow tree continued beyond these early shows. In the present lots, great care goes into the depiction of the cascading leaves; each one seems to get a dash or strike from the artist’s blunt lime, yellow and blue pastel sticks. Similarly, it is remarkable that contour and shadow appear from the short strokes of green, brown and lilac in the foregrounds. The decorative quality of the negative spaces is particularly striking, and is emphasised by crosshatched areas of electric blue, icy white and grey.

¹ PG Nel (ed.) (1990). JH Pierneef: His Life and His Work, Johannesburg: Peskor, page 43.
² Ibid.