watercolour over pencil on paper

Artwork date: 1944
Signature details: signed and dated bottom right

(1)

32.5 x 27 cm; framed size: 48.5 x 40.5 x 2 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Notes:

George Pemba is celebrated today as the foremost black portrait painter who defied Western sensationalism in convincingly depicting local and indigenous people with grace, compassion and nobility. In 1944, Pemba secured a grant from the then Bantu Welfare Trust and embarked on a grand tour across South Africa. He was interested to see how different people in South Africa lived and wanted to “capture the soul of the South African peoples in their natural surroundings”. He recalls in the diary of his journey: “This loan was intended to enable me to see the beautiful plains and mountains of my own land, as I felt I could no longer tolerate being shut up in an office. I longed to see the Zulus, from whence the Xhosas originated, and the Basutos, the original people….I belong to the Ngquosini tribe, the river people, who fled Moshoeshoe, and joined the Xhosas many years ago”[1].

Presented here is a collection of watercolours, created between 1944 and 1947, during Pemba’s sojourn and shortly thereafter. These exquisitely rare works indicate his remarkable skill in working with watercolour to capture with truth and care the various details - like beadwork, headdresses and facial features, in portraying the unique and individual character of his subjects.

George Pemba travelled from the Eastern Cape to the urban landscapes of the Highveld, after which he moved on to KwaZulu-Natal and back to the interior to Basutoland (modern-day Lesotho). He then travelled south from the mountains of Basutoland to the Transkei capital of Umtata (Mthatha). The foothills of the Drakensberg mountain range (which separates Lesotho from South Africa) stretches into the grasslands of the Eastern Cape coast, wherein between lies Umtata. Interestingly, in the background and positioned to the right of the central figure in Xhosa woman dancing (Lot 57), a mountain is visible that resembles the geography of the Umtata area. The mountain bears a specific resemblance to the Amabele Entombi Mountain (translated as “girl’s breast mountain” referring of its shape). The mountains and grasslands seen in the background of Woman wearing a traditional headwrap with pins (Lot 56) is also characteristic of the area around Umtata.

Marelize van Zyl

[1] Huddleston, S. (1996). Against All Odds. Jeppestown: Jonathon Ball Publishers. p.40.