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Historical Artist - Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886 - 1957)
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef was born in Pretoria, South Africa 1886 -
1957
Art Education
Drawing under an architect at Hilversum, Holland.
1901: Rotterdam Academy.
1905-8: painting under Frans Oerder.
1908-: etch-ing and wood-engraving under GS Smithard.
Short Artist Biography
JH Pierneef was born in the year that Johannesburg was founded; his father, Gerrit-a Hollander,
build the first house in the new town (in Market St); his mother was the daughter of a Trekker.
He attended the Staats Model School in Pretoria; excelled at drawing; his love of the
countryside was fostered by one of his teachers.
1900: during the Anglo-Boer War Gerrit Pierneef organized an auxiliary police force in Pretoria;
when Lord Roberts took the town he gave him the choice of internment or deportation; choosing
the latter, the family sailed for Holland via East African coast; they stayed at first in
Hilversum where JH Pierneef worked part-time in a paint factory and attended night-classes in
drawing; later they settled in Rotterdam; although they wanted JH Pierneef to study for the DRC
ministry, they allowed him a year at the Academy and a visit to Rome.
1902: with the end of the Anglo-Boer War the family returned to Pretoira; JH Pierneef intended
to study architecture, but his father experienced unexpected financial difficulties and young JH
Pierneef was sent to work in Lodewijk de Jager's tobacco shop; he continued to study artistic
techniques, encouraged by his godfather, Anton van Wouw.
1910: JH Pierneef sold his first oil painting - Meintjies Kop - to Emil Schweikerdt for R6-30.
1912: JH Pierneef received an appointment at the State Library, Pretoria; together with Smithard
and Pieter Wenning exhibited as a member of `The Individualists' Group.
1917: JH Pierneef elected a member of Society of South African Artists; drew illustrations for
`Die Brandwag'; executed many linocuts, (until quite recently these were always des-cribed as
woodcuts).
1920-23: JH Pierneef appointed lecturer in art in Pretoria and Heidelberg Normal Colleges;
enjoyed travelling the countryside; studied and copied rock paintings; showed his work in Cape
Town and Stellenbosch.
1923: his paintings began to sell and he decided on a fulltime career in art; went off on a
painting expedition to Namibia, the first of several.
1924: a new phase began; JH Pierneef divorced his first wife, broke with his Church; remarried -
Marian Frances Schoop ; received his first commission - murals for a school in Ficksburg.
1925: on the South African Academy his wife showed tapestries woven to his designs based on
`Bushman' motifs. Travelled to Europe: exhibited in Amsterdam; met Anton Hendriks and invited
him to visit South Africa; impressed by the theories of the Dutch painter, Willem van
Konijnenburg.
1926: JH Pierneef returned home via East Coast; painted a number of his most spontaneous
impressionistic pictures in Mozambique; began to experiment along unconventional lines - both
divisionistic and what he referred to as `geometric' styles - e g Study in Blue; also perfected
a complex technique based on a casein medium.
1929: it was announced in the press that JH Pierneef had received a commission for mural-panels
for the new Johannesburg railway station (32 paintings at R80 apiece). The completed works were
installed in November 1932.
1933: JH Pierneef commissioned to paint murals for South Africa House, London; spent two years
in London with visits to the continent.
1935: returned to South Africa.
1936: South Africa awarded Medal of Honour for Painting by South Africa Akademie. Several other
commissions followed; his reputation firmly established, he settled on a small farm East of
Pretoria and proceeded to create a home, studio and garden of indigenous character; called his
home `Elangeni' -- Where Sunshine is at the Gate; suffered his first heart-attack while building
his house; continued to spend much time in the veld, sketching trees and landscape; also
travelled and painted farther afield.
1947: the subject of a monograph `Pierneef - the Man and his Work' by JFW Grosskopf.
1950: South Africa worked at University College of Natal, Pietermaritzburg; made a pictorial
record of Pretoria streets and homesteads.
1951: South Africa awarded honorary- Doctorate by University of Natal. A most congenial
companion and an earnest crusader for the cause of Afrikaner art and culture. Honoured in his
life-time as a great South African artist; several of his works have been reproduced by E
Schweikerdt (Pty) Ltd. Illustrated numerous periodicals and books.
During the 1970s, Pierneef's daughter, Marita ("Miekie") Bailey, and her husband
established the
Bailey Collection, made up of a large number of South Africa's works and personal effects which
had been in their possession, plus numerous items which they sought out and acquired from
various other quarters. A portion of this Collection was purchased by the South African
Department of National Education in 1975. The rest of the Collection, made up of some 350 items,
was placed on public exhibition in a small gallery created for the purpose in Stellenbosch,
where the Baileys lived. In 1980, the Department purchased the remainder of the Bailey
Collection, with the aim of ultimately creating a Pierneef Museum. Meanwhile the Collection
would be housed in the Pretoria Art Museum
Art Exhibitions
1912-13: exhibitions of `The Individualists', Pretoria.
1913: first one-man art exhibition, Pretoria; many thereafter.
1920: Johannesburg Sketch Club Exhibition; South African Academy Exhibition, et seq.
1921: one-man art exhibitions in the Cape Province.
1924: South African Art, Empire Exhibition, Wembley.
1926: one-man art exhibition, Amsterdam.
1936: Empire Exhibition, Johannesburg.
1948: Overseas Exhibition of South African Art
1950: 25-year retrospective exhibition, Johannesburg.
1952: Van Riebeeck Tercent Exhibition Cape Town.
1953: Rhodes Cenenaryt Exhibition, Bula-wayo.
1962: Pierneef Festival, Johannesburg.
1973: exhibition of restored Johannesburg Station panels, plus associated sketches, Pretoria Art
Museum
1979: Station panels installed in new Johannesburg Station Museum; `South African Printmakers',
South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
1980: `Pierneef/Van Wouw', exhibition touring South Africa's major art museums, organized by the
Rembrandt Art Foundation.
Public Art Collections
South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Pretoria Art
Museum; Durban Art Gallery; William Humphreys Gallery, Kmberley; King George VI Gallery, Port
Elizabeth; Ann Bryant Art Gallery, East London; Rembrandt Art Foundtn;UNISA; Wits Galleriess; AC
White Gallery, Bloemfontein; Johannesburg Railway Station Museum; Sandton Municipal Collection;
Pietersburg Art Collection.
Source
Berman, E. 1994. Art & Artists of South Africa . Southern Book Publishers.
Contemporary South African Artists
Art Galleries in South Africa
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