Artists

Edinburgh-born Cathcart William Methven, architect, engineer and landscape artist, emigrated to South Africa in 1888 having been appointed Harbour Engineer-in-Chief at Port Natal. As civil and marine engineer he surveyed numerous ports and harbours in Kalk Bay, Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, East London and Port St Johns. His rigorous technical training, his natural talent, his extensive travel itinerary, and his interest in the natural splendour of his adopted country, also made him one of our outstanding pre-WWI landscape painters and a vital pictorial historian. He applied careful topographical observation and a romantic palette to his preferred dramatic landscape views.