Strauss & co - 26 September 2011, Cape Town

122 264 Pieter Willem Frederick WENNING SOUTH AFRICAN 1873–1921 From Grove Road, Claremont, with Devil’s Peak signed oil on canvas 31,5 by 44,5cm R800 000 – 1 200 000 EXHIBITED South African National Gallery, Pieter Wenning Commemorative Exhibition, September, 1973 LITERATURE J du Preez Scholtz, DC Boonzaier and Pieter Wenning: Verslag van ‘n Vriendskap, Tafelberg Publishers, Cape Town and Johannesburg, 1973, page 133, plate 117, illustrated Pieter Wenning painted this scene in 1919. At the time the artist was lodging at the Vineyard Hotel, as J du Preez Scholtz informs us in his detailed record of Wenning’s life as traced through DC Boonzaier’s diary. Unable to pay for his board, the artist appealed to Boonzaier, his mentor, friend and greatest supporter throughout his life. Leading businessman and Member of Parliament, Dr William Duncan Baxter, came to the artist’s rescue when he acquired two paintings, one of which was this work. Baxter clearly had a passion for the arts and it was as a result of the generous bequest in his will that the Baxter Theatre was established which, in his words, would “develop and cultivate the arts in Cape Town and the adjacent districts”.