17th Jul, 2017 17:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
104
Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (South Africa 1886-1957)
Farm landscape
oil on canvas laid down on board
Artwork date: 1923
Signature details: signed and dated
Sold for R113,680
Estimated at R100,000 - R200,000
oil on canvas laid down on board
Artwork date: 1923
Signature details: signed and dated
(1)
23 x 29 cm
Notes:
By 1925 Pierneef was a well-known painter. His first two solo exhibitions in Pretoria in 1913 and 1915 were followed by a major exhibition with more than 300 works in Pretoria in 1920 and two successful exhibitions in Stellenbosch and Cape Town the next year. Based on this success he decided to resign in 1923 from teaching positions he had held for a number of years at the Pretoria and Heidelberg Normal Colleges and embarked on a career as a professional artist. In August 1925 he left for Europe on a much anticipated study tour where he became acquainted with the Dutch artist and theorist Willem van Konijnenburg, a man who provided Pierneef with the insight for which he was looking. Should one follow Berman’s (1983:329) division of Pierneef’s career into three major periods, the year 1925 signals the start of the second period, that of ‘discovery and mastery’(1925-1936).In this rather factual depiction of the landscape, Pierneef uses a farmstead as his focal point, albeit obscured by some rocky outcrops, leaving only the rooftops visible. It could be argued that the artist approached the dwellings from the ‘wrong’ side, but clearly, Pierneef was not interested in painting the ‘front view’ of the garden, and the path leading to the front door. What intrigued him was the view across the roofs, beyond the trees, towards the mountain, the plains in the distance and above all, the sky. Painted with a slightly thicker paint application than the rest and with even brush strokes, the sky is rendered in the rosy hues of daybreak, a colour that complements the reddish land forms in the foreground, a sculptural landscape in its own right.Although Pierneef started work on his series of 32 large landscapes for the Johannesburg station in 1930, it is important to remember that he landed that commission in 1925, the year he painted Bushveld.
Johan Myburg
Sources:
Berman, E. (1983). Art & Artists of South Africa, Cape Town & Rotterdam: Balkema.
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Auction: Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art, 17th Jul, 2017
Aspire Art Auctions’ second Johannesburg sale offered a selection of some of the best works produced by local and international artists available on the local market. Offerings included Cameroonian-born, Belgium-based, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Chilean, Eugenio Dittborn, and South Africans, William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Louis Maqhubela, Cecil Skotnes, Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern, and Mohau Modisakeng, amongst others.
The sale was led by an international auction record of R1 200 320 achieved for a drawing, Children under Apartheid, by exiled South African artist Dumile Feni, as well as the successful sale of top international lot Golden Mask by renowned performance artist Marina Abramović.
Viewing
Friday 14 July 2017 | 10 am – 7 pm
Saturday 15 July 2017 | 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday 16 July 2017 | 10 am – 4 pm
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