J.H. Pierneef

 

J.H. Pierneef (1886-1957) was an Afrikans-speaking South African, and he is often said to be the leading Afrikans painter. I don't know if I like these so much because they are good, or because I have seen so few paintings of the African landscape. Above, Leadwood trees - Bushveld, 1944.

The Baobab Tree, 1934, which fetched the highest price ever paid for a work of South African art (£826,400).

Acacia Trees. Pierneef fell out of favor during the revolutionary epoch, not because of his own politics (he seems to have steered cleared of controversy as much as possible) but because his paintings so resolutely avoid depicting Africans. The landscape is vacant, just waiting for Europeans to explore or claim it. Tourist art, said detractors, if not outright imperialistic. But of course fashions change, and now wealthy white South Africans are eager to own these.

Camelthorn Tree, Kalahari, 1956

House in Old Pretoria, 1917.

Besides paintings, Pierneef did a number of striking linocuts. Above, North Transvaal.

In 1929 Pierneef was commissioned to do a series of 32 paintings for the Johannesburg Railway Station. These, above and below, have recently been installed in a new museum built by billionaire Anton Rupert in Stellenbosch.