Lot 23
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef(South African, 1886-1957)Cubist landscape
23 March 2011, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £26,400 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Shipping (UK)
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (South African, 1886-1957)
Cubist landscape
signed and dated 'Pierneef 35' (lower right)
watercolour
43 x 57cm (16 15/16 x 22 7/16in).
signed and dated 'Pierneef 35' (lower right)
watercolour
43 x 57cm (16 15/16 x 22 7/16in).
Footnotes
In the late 1920s, Pierneef started to experiment with a new form to his works; the geometric structure of the landscape was emphasised with the paintings taking on a more abstracted form. It is these "futuristic" works, though poorly received at the time, which are today the most highly sought of his oeuvre.
The present lot hints at these earlier experiments with a more abstract geometric style in 1928. The geometric quality of this work, its simplicity of line and colour, can be ascribed to his graphic training. It was painted shortly after the artist's return to South Africa from London, where he had been commissioned by Charles Te Water, South African High Commissioner, and Sir Herbert Baker, the architect, to paint a series of landscape panels which were central to the redecoration of South Africa House in Trafalgar Square. As with the 28 enormous murals commissioned to decorate the new Johannesburg railway station, completed 1929-32, Pierneef depicted the South African landscape in an unashamedly heroic manner.