29th Sep, 2021 19:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
16
Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (South Africa 1886-1957)
Wolke
oil on canvas
Artwork date: circa 1920-22
Signature details: inscribed with the title in the artist's hand on the stretcher, accompanied by a letter of authenticity (circa 1950) and authenticiated by ART Group, Pretoria
oil on canvas
Artwork date: circa 1920-22
Signature details: inscribed with the title in the artist's hand on the stretcher, accompanied by a letter of authenticity (circa 1950) and authenticiated by ART Group, Pretoria
(1)
46 x 56 cm; framed size: 66 x 76 x 4 cm
Provenance:
Deceased estate, Johannesburg.
Acquired directly from the artist and thence by descent.
Notes:
Accompanied by a hand-written note of authenticity (circa 1950s) from the original owner:
Pierneef had a lifelong love of the South African landscape and wide-openspaces. It was important to him to develop a unique visual language to portray a truly South African topography. This was his lifelong ambition and he is today widely considered one of the country’s most iconic landscape painters.
This work titled Wolke (Clouds), although undated, was almost certainly painted early in Pierneef’s career. Gerard de Kamper, collections manager and curator at the UP Museums at the University of Pretoria and researcher at the technical analysis and research company Art Group, in fact dates the work as early as 1920. This he concluded from an investigation of technical aspects, provenance checks and connoisseurship. Stylistically, the painting is undoubtedly consistent with the works of the early 1920s. It exhibits a rich textural quality. Painted in subdued hues and broad, gestural brushstrokes, the painting shows the influence of Pierneef’s early mentors – South African masters Pieter Wenning and Frans Oerder.
Although typical of Pierneef’s early style, Wolke shows evidence of many of the compositional elements and iconic motifs that became hallmarks of the artist’s later work. Beautifully painted, the pictorial surface is organised into well-defined spaces. The immediate darkened foreground gives way to planes of scrub, grass and small bushes, leading the eye to the lonely farmstead – one of Pierneef’s most favoured and recognisable motifs. Behind the solitary farmhouse, nestled in trees in the middle-ground, the empty veld stretches towards the horizon in the distance. Above rises a vast expanse of cloud-filled sky occupying four-fifths of the format. Great billowing clouds and impressive skies became a hallmark of Pierneef’s work and the artist can be considered as much a painter of the cloudscape as of the land.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 29th Sep, 2021
Aspire Art Auctions brings a significant and insightfully compiled selection of top-quality modern and contemporary art to auction in Cape Town. The sale stars exceptional works by many of South Africa’s big signatures, including, William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins, Penny Siopis, Edoardo Villa, Sydney Kumalo and J.H Pierneef, amongst others. Also featured is an exciting collection of contemporary artists from elsewhere in Africa – Patrick Bongoy and Zemba Luzamba from the Congo, Moustapha Baïdi Oumarou from Cameroon and Gerald Chukwuma from Nigeria.
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