Bonhams 1793 : Pieter Hugo Naudé (South African, 1869-1941) Family devotion

PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist by C. Louis Leipoldt
Gifted by the above to Miss Lydia Postma (d.1934) on the occasion of her wedding
Thence by direct descent to the current owner

"In his early works, of which some are interiors, his style is traditional but sincere. We see groups of people in a homely setting, with many reminiscences of Dutch art." (Bouman, 1951, p.41)

The present lot depicts evening prayer: an intimate interior scene, typical of traditional Dutch genre painting, and yet with a distinctive South African flavour. It compares closely, in date, technique and composition, with On the Farm (exhibited at the SANG retrospective and illustrated in Naudé, 1974, front cover & fig.24) and Cape Kitchen Interior, dated 1898 (sold at Stephan Welz & Co., Johannesburg, 6 November, 1984, lot 115).

Dr. Christian Frederik Louis Leipoldt (18801947), one of the greatest of the Afrikaner poets, was a close friend and neighbour of the artist in the Boland town of Worcester. Naudé was born near Worcester, and though he studied and worked in Europe, he returned and settled down there in 1896. Locally he was known as "Artist Naudé", and he left his house and paintings to the town after his death.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A.C. Bouman, Painters of South Africa, (Cape Town, 1951)
A. Naudé, Hugo Naudé, (Cape Town, 1974)