Lot 214*
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef(South African, 1886-1957)Storm clouds over the veld
23 March 2011, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£120,000 - £180,000
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Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (South African, 1886-1957)
Storm clouds over the veld
signed and dated 'J.H. Pierneef 1940' (lower left)
oil on canvas
61 x 77cm (24 x 30 5/16in).
signed and dated 'J.H. Pierneef 1940' (lower left)
oil on canvas
61 x 77cm (24 x 30 5/16in).
Footnotes
EXHIBITED:
Elangeni, J.H. Pierneef and Fanie Eloff joint exhibition, 1941
The present lot can be seen hanging in Pierneef's studio at the above exhibition in a photograph of Pierneef and Eloff published in Nel, 1990, p.93.
In the present lot the focus of the painting is not the landscape; it is undoubtedly Pierneef's vast cumulonimbus clouds, which hang over the purple mountains threatening to burst at any moment. Like his pencil and watercolour sketches of trees, the artist made countless studies of clouds. Other comparable oil paintings include Karoo landscape with rain clouds (sold at Stephan Welz & Co., Johannesburg, 20 October 2003, lot 314) and Wolke, 1952 (illustrated in Nel, 1990, p.148).
"His mystic towers and castles in the air above the Transvaal landscape are almost legends in themselves, they have become symbolic. They hover over the veld like mountains and bring a dramatic tension to static scenes. At times these heavy cloud masses are highly stylised or they form a stylistic unity with the landscape. On other occasions they acquire almost anthropomorphic traits." (Nel, 1990, p.149).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
P.G. Nel, J.H. Pierneef: His life and work, (Cape Town, 1990)