watercolour and pencil on paper

Artwork date: 1935
Signature details: signed and dated bottom right; inscribed with the artist's name, the date, title and exhibition title on an Iziko South African National Gallery label on the reverse
Exhibited: Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 'George Pemba Retrospective Exhibition', 1996.
Literature: Proud, H. & Feinberg, B. (eds). (1996). 'George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba', Cape Town: South African National Gallery, referenced on p.79.

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31.5 x 25 cm; framed size: 62.5 x 48 x 3 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Gqeberha.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

This early portrait by George Pemba is an exceptional and delicate example of the artist’s remarkable skill in working with watercolour, to capture the unique and individual character of his subjects – with truth and care.

Today, celebrated as one of the foremost modern South African painters for his depictions of urban and rural life, Pemba was first tutored in watercolour by Ethel Smyth in 1931 at the University College of Fort Hare, and subsequently in 1937 by Professor Austin Wintermoore at Rhodes University. While he would later move his focus to oil paint, art historian Hayden Proud notes that the artist’s, “watercolours painted between c.1933 and c.1947 are among his very best works”.[1]

Old Man Drinking Umqombothi painted in 1935 is thus a very early – and exceptionally rare – example from this important period. An image of an elderly man drinking traditional beer, Pemba’s biographer Sarah Hudleston notes that he produced a whole series of works featuring men drinking Umqombothi.[2] The author’s 1996 publication, Against all Odds, includes a remarkably similar depiction from this series, painted in 1955. This portrait was further included, alongside the current lot, on the artist’s 1996 retrospective at the Iziko National Gallery in Cape Town.

The artist’s return to the scene is intriguing. One wonders what drew Pemba back to this image of a serious and pensive elderly gentleman, deep in thought, while a younger woman is quietly at work in the background. Was the pull to revisit the portrait motivated by a technical impulse to paint the work at a later stage or by a special affinity held for the sitter? Whether a formal, personal or sentimental reason – what is clear is that the sensitive portrayal, held a special significance to Pemba and stands out within the artist’s oeuvre.

Sarah Sinisi

^{[1] Proud, H in Revisions. (2015). George Pemba. [online]. Available: http://revisions.co.za/biographies/george-pemba/}

^{[2] Hudleston, S. (1996). Against all Odds. Jeppestown: Jonathan Ball Publishers. p.111.}

^COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Cory Library for Historical Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery and The World Bank Collection, Washington, DC.