Strauss & co - Review 2009

12 Pieter Wenning S OUTH A FRICAN 1873-1921 Cottage, Nelspruit signed and dated ‘Apr. 19’, inscribed with the location on the frame on the reverse canvas laid-down on board, 37 by 45 cm SOLD R1 002 600, MARCH 2009 Wenning spent from the second week in March 1919 to 23 April 1919 in Nelspruit during which time he painted this scene which is so redolent of Gauguin’s Polynesian landscapes. In a letter dated 3 April 1919 he writes to D.C. Boonzaier that since his previous letter of fourteen days earlier he has completed five or six works some of which he regards as particularly good and “one is an entirely new and I think very true colour scheme. It was one of those tropical days, the foreground light banana-plants, young and vigorous, to the left strong, light green; to the right you see mango-trees of a much deeper green and deep purple shadows. The foreground is a pattern of very light yellow sand, with purplish blue-grey shadows, all definite, light and strong. The house in the distance, reed-covered; the bit of sky greyish blue; an entirely new conception altogether and I was very pleased with it myself, if I may say so.” Wenning includes a pen sketch of the painting. J. du P. Scholtz, D.C. Boonzaier and Pieter Wenning, Verslag Van ‘n Vriendskap , Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1973, p 71.