Art News

The passions of South Africa’s leading Afrikaans artist for sale at Bonhams

LONDON.- A series of stunning landscapes by J.H. Pierneef, (1886-1957), one of South Africa’s leading 20th century artists, whose work adorns South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, is for sale at Bonhams South African Art Sale on March 21 in London. Second to landscape, architecture was J.H. Pierneef’s greatest passion and he brought the disciplines of art and architecture to bear on landscape in ways that speak directly to the heart and eye. His ‘A view over Chuniespoort’, of 1945 (estimate £300,000-500,000) is a perfect example of Pierneef’s mirroring of architecture and nature. In using a simplified palette and mimicking the arrangement of the rondavels (huts) with the arrangement of the trees and mountains, Pierneef seamlessly harmonises the two elements. For anyone familiar with South Africa, these haunting images of the country’s great interior spaces, often