Notes

In 1950, Diane Hathorn and her daughter Valentine visited an exhibition of Pierneef’s work at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, where they met the artist. Diane was torn between this painting and one from Pierneef’s red/brown/orange genre. Pierneef himself moved the paintings to hang next to each other and advised Diane Hathorn to buy this bushveld scene, which she did. After Diane’s death Valentine Stephenson (née Hathorn) inherited the work.
In 2008 the painting was cleaned (for the first time) by Jenny Dawson and re-framed (also for the first time) by David Lewis Browne.

‘What is a landscape? Is it the rough upper surface of the earth, or the effects of its internal construction? What is a tree? Is it a colourful play of sparks of light between moving roofs, or is it an organic form of life given expression in the balance of its branches and trunks?’¹ The trees in Bushveld may well represent a whole life cycle of spring turning into summer, judging from the different shades of greens of the trees at centre, and autumn (the yellows and oranges of the trees on the left) into winter (the whites of trees on the right).

Gré van der Waal-Braaksma (1990) ‘Pierneef: The Artist’, in PG Nel (ed) JH Pierneef: His Life and His Work, Cape Town: Perskor, page 156.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by Diane Hathorn and thence by descent.

Estate the Late Valentine Stephenson (née Hathorn).