SAN ROCK ART
signed and dated J. H. Pierneef / Feb 1927 and indistinctly inscribed lower right
gouache over pencil on paper
45 x 63cm; 17 3/4 x 24 3/4in
70.5 x 86.5cm; 27 3/4 x 34in (framed)

Property of a Private Collector, Cambridge

Provenance
Marita Pierneef-Bailey Private Collection
Sale, Stephan Welz and Co, CapeTown, 17 July 2023, lot 1041
The DinksFãStan Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

"Truly national art has to be born of your own surroundings and your own soil” – Jacob Hendrik Pierneef

Influenced by ancient forms of Rock Art of the South African and Botswanian bushmen, (The San) found in caves and on rock shelters, Jacob Hendrik Pierneef draws on these paintings in the present work. Depicting a group of hunters striking a large boar, his figures echo the half-human half-animal hybrids, believed to be medicine men or healers involved in a healing dance, which permeate this original visual language of Rock Art.

Pierneef was interested in the formal aspects of prehistoric art, such as the economy of line, the decorative simplification and the accurate grasp of formal relationships without shadows or colour modelling, which he saw in the illustrations in the books he had at his disposal during his time as library assistant at the State Library, Pretoria from 1909-1918.

Instinctively, he realised that these principles were also applicable to the representation of the South African landscape. The harsh sunlight of the Transvaal imbued the landscape with a similar silhouette-like flat character. However, since Pierneef had never himself visited any prehistoric art shelter to see Rock Art first-hand, he believed that the illustrations of San paintings in the books were accurate renderings of the art of the San and indeed this work is a direct copy of Carl Peters' drawing of a rock art painting reproduced in his book The Eldorado of the Ancients (1902: 391). Little did he realise however that these copyists had applied their own artistic licence. He soon abandoned these experiments, and it was left to the younger Walter Battiss (1906-1982) to develop the potential at a later stage.

The only other known strikingly similar example adorns the walls of the assembly hall in Ficksburg High School in the Free State, painted in 1922.

Pierneef, born on the Highveld, is South Africa’s iconic landscape painter and is generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. During the first half of the twentieth century, he developed a unique aesthetic that generations of South Africans recognise. He was prolific, working in oils, gouache, watercolour, casein, and producing influential linocuts and etchings. Pierneef's work, known for its beauty and experimentation, has been examined by art historians and critics, often in socio-political contexts.Pierneef's work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery. In 1933, he was commissioned to do seven murals for South Africa House, the South African embassy on Trafalgar Square, London. A work which he completed in 1934.