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

205 594 Jacob Hendrik Pierneef SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1957 Extensive Mountain Landscape signed and dated 32 oil on artist’s board 45,5 by 55cm R600 000 - 800 000 are suggested in the three diagonals in the foreground: one on the left, another at the centre, in the form of a ploughed furrow, and a third on the right in the form of a green thicket along what appears to be a stream. Beyond the trees these pathways seem to refract again but now in the opposite direction. In addition, the silhouette of the mountain range in the background has its own network of diagonals. Pierneef rejoiced in painting the farms in the Stellenbosch valley. He often visited the town, exhibiting in the local Town Hall in 1921, and staying with JFW Grosskopf, who wrote the very first Pierneef biography, published in 1945. Pierneef exhibited the same suite of paintings in the Ashbey Hall, Long Street, Cape Town, in October 1921. Praising Pierneef, Die Burger stated that ”…many people were amazed to see how successfully the painter captures the vastness and mystery of the African plains and mountains and friendly old farmhouse. Pierneef can be very proud of himself. He has given the people of the Cape something new and they have appreciated it.”