Strauss & co - 10 - 11 May 2020, Cape Town

204 593 Jacob Hendrik Pierneef SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1957 Stellenbosch Landscape signed and dated 21 oil on canvas 40 by 55cm R450 000 - 650 000 Claude Monet’s extensive collection of Japanese woodblock prints still hangs in the dining room of his house at Giverny, in France. The artists of “The Floating World”, as the Japanese woodblock printers are often called, had had a profound influence of the manner in which Monet composed his landscapes, creating a veritable bird’s-eye view of the French countryside. George Smithard introduced JH Pierneef to Japanese woodblock prints when he showed the young artist the ropes of the linocut technique. Not only did these prints influence Pierneef’s own linocuts, they also set the tone for many of the compositions of his varied and extensive landscapes. In the present lot Pierneef seems to invite the viewer to ‘’dive’’ into the foreground of this Cape winelands scene, ending up in the middle ground among a clump of trees, only to be challenged to scale the mountains in the background – truly a roller coaster ride! The perception of this landscape is that of great movement, of virile animation. In addition, the viewer is seemingly also given the choice of angle from which to approach this flight: pathways