Strauss & co - 26 - 28 July 2020, Online

172 394 Robert Gwelo Goodman SOUTH AFRICAN 1871–1939 Constantia Nek signed with the artist’s initials oil on canvas laid down on board 31 by 40,5 cm R60 000 – 80 000 395 Robert Gwelo Goodman SOUTH AFRICAN 1871–1939 Mont-aux-Sources signed with the artist’s initials oil on canvas 43 by 58 cm R120 000 – 160 000 a shifting vision of terracotta, amber and white, anchored by the unmistakable silhouettes of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Palazzo Vecchio. It is particularly inter- esting to compare this picture to the later views he painted of the Cape Town City Bowl from Bo-Kaap (see Lot 565, October 2018), or the Bay of Natal from the Berea (see Lot 307, November 2018). From the late 1910s and early 1920s, having returned to Cape Town perma- nently in 1915, he produced a broad series focused on Cape Homesteads (of which the illustrations for Dorothea Fairbridge’s Historic Houses of South Africa , published in 1922, was only a small part). During this period, he notably introduced interiors and still lifes into his exhibitions too, per- haps as a reaction to the market. Lot 392, Copper Pot with Aloes , is a fine example of the latter genre: the pot’s reflective qual- ity is skilled, while the gleaming crimson of the tubular flowers are in striking con- trast with the patchwork of grey, lilac and cream dabs that form the background. Gwelo’s interest in Cape vernacu- lar architecture moved to a practical conclusion: towards the end of his career, and often working alongside Ivan Mit- ford-Barberton in the then Natal Province, he played a major role in the so-called Cape Dutch Revival. Although he never received formal training, many of his ren- ovations, adaptations and designs made a lasting-enough impact to establish a style of sorts: ‘Gwelo Colonial’was a term loosely used on the Natal coast well after the artist-architect’s death. His first serious foray into architecture, however, was in assisting with the restoration of Woodley, the home of Douglas Mackeurtan in Musgrave Road, Durban. If some of the correspondence between him, Mackeur- tan and the architect Wally Paton is to be believed, Gwelo’s prescriptive design suggestions were rarely questioned. Lot 393 shows Woodley’s white-washed, Goodman-Paton façade set high on a slope above remarkable gardens. The surface of the painting is nothing short of jewel-like: controlled dashes of lime, vermillion, yellow and violet create a beautiful, shimmering effect. Gardens were certainly a favourite subject for the artist, and other outstanding examples, whether painted outside Newlands House (see Lot 361, June 2012) or even facing towards the Crown Mines (see Lot 356, June 2012), have appeared in Strauss & Co salerooms over the past few years. In most minds, Gwelo was a painter of evocative landscapes. Two typical examples, provinces apart, are fea- tured here: Lot 394 shows a cluster of wind-beaten pines in front of a dramatic, hazy Cape panorama; while Lot 395 takes us up into a wintry Drakensberg, with Mont-aux-Sources on the horizon and the nearer peaks and rockfaces glinting in the sunshine. Supposedly distrustful of the auction process, Gwelo made arrangements in his will to have the remnants of his studio, including a number of fine paintings and pastels, exhibited at Cannon House, his home in Newlands, and then sold in situ . He died in March 1939. 1. Joyce Newton Thompson (1951) Gwelo Goodman: South African Artist , Cape Town: Howard Timmins, page 29. A FOCUS ON ROBERT GWELO GOODMAN 1871–1939