Notes

Pierneef’s rare, jewel-like caseins have always been sought after, and there are few, if any, spectacular examples that date back as far as 1920. The present lot, painted in that year, shows a gabled, Cape-style homestead nestled amongst well-established trees. Its fields in the foreground have been cut short by winter sun or grazing, while a dome of clouds dominates the sky. The mountains on the horizon – orange and terracotta when catching the light, and mauve in shadow – might set the scene in the Cape, but the artist’s travel itinerary between 1919 and 1920, finding him in Heidelberg, Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Potchefstroom, makes this unlikely.

Although his painting career had always been front of mind, once resigned from his teaching post at the Heidelberg Normal College in June 1919 (having grown frustrated by the Eurocentric syllabus), Pierneef set himself up as a full-time artist, and continued his active interest in the development and promotion of Afrikaans culture through lectures, poem and magazine illustrations, and even set designs for Afrikaans theatre productions. After showing work in Bloemfontein towards the end of 1919, and assisting in April 1920 with the staging in Pretoria of Die Koerantskrywers, a play by his friend and later biographer JFW Grosskopf, an exhibition of Pierneef’s works opened in June 1920 at the Potchefstroom Town Hall. Whether or not the present lot was included in this selection is anyone’s guess, but the critic reporting for Het Westen, delighted by the show’s quality and variety, might have had a work like Homestead in mind during one of his more colourful descriptions: in Pierneef’s paintings are ‘things we have all seen ourselves’, he wrote, ‘but never seen in such a way as this artist brings before our eyes’.¹

This casein, with its clear outlines in Indian ink, exemplifies two of Pierneef’s defining strengths: his flair for unusual if peaceful colour combinations is made apparent, as is his sure, clean, uncomplicated line. The brushwork is dazzling: the flicks and spots of flash-drying indigo, mustard, apricot and emerald green seems instinctive, even if the still harmony of the composition suggests otherwise.

¹ PG Nel (ed.) (1990). JH Pierneef: His Life and His Work, Johannesburg: Peskor, page 56.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the present owner's parents