Strauss & co - 7 October 2019, Cape Town

221 Johannes Meintjes’works were warmly received throughout his career, likely due to their dreamy and romantic qualities. In the 1940s and 50s, he “enjoy[ed] the kind of public adulation which was later reserved for youthful idols of the pop-music world.” 1 In May of 1958, a solo exhibition of the artist was held at the Helen de Leeuw Gallery in Pretoria. A review of the exhibition described the impact of the present lot… “…his large Figures on a Beach dominates the end wall. It is probably the most accomplished painting on this scale he has yet shown here, bravely and simply planned - black against gold, against red, against blue - all building up into an interesting pattern of strong colour.” 1. Esmé Berman (1983) Art and Artists of South Africa. Cape Town: Southern Book Publishers. Page 285. 2. The Art Critic, The Star Newspaper, 14 May 1958. Johannes Meintjes, preliminary sketch for Figures on a Beach