Artists

Nerine Desmond was born in Constantia in the Cape, she spent her childhood in Pretoria and moved back to Cape Town in 1920. She explored numerous art techniques and briefly attended the Cape Town Art School but was largely self-taught. In 1938, she studied etching and aquatints at the London Central School of Art and attended night classes at the Chelsea School of Art. She returned from England and travelled extensively in Basotholand (Lesotho), South West Africa (Namibia) and along the East African coast where she painted the countryside and people. It was at this time that she painted Voortrekker subjects and began to explore pastoral themes. Desmond was a member of both the South African Society of Artists and the rival New Group, and she was influenced by Gregoire Boonzaier and Frieda Locke who were both active at the time. In 1961 she was elected a fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters, and she designed the one cent South African postage stamp. She taught art at Springfield Convent in Cape Town and was curator of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg between 1966 and 1967. Nerine Desmond painted landscapes, seascapes, still-life studies, and figures and portraits. Her watercolours were primarily of landscapes and seascapes, with figures being more prevalent in oil paintings and on panels. She also sculpted in wood and bronze and used a variety of graphic media. She participated in numerous group exhibitions including the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Quadrennial Exhibitions, the São Paulo Biennale in 1961 and the Republic Festival Exhibition in 1981. Desmond held numerous solo exhibitions both in South Africa and internationally, and her work is represented in most of the public art collections in South Africa.