Notes

Like Frans Oerder working on the east coast of Africa (fig 1), or Hugo Naudé painting in the gardens behind Groote Schuur (fig 2), Henk Pierneef continuously proved himself to be a masterful painter of weather. In the current lot, An Approaching Storm, the clouds are heavy with rain, the mountainsides in ominous shadow, the air thick with moisture, and the moment still with anticipation. This small-scale and evocative work was painted in 1926, with the artist’s hugely influential European tour fresh in mind. The work he produced on his return was thrillingly experimental, stylistically varied, and fearlessly expressed. While then searching primarily for geometric harmony in his landscape compositions, he also explored the atmospheric power of Impressionist and Divisionist techniques. The present lot, with its wriggling purples, its plain daubs of white, and its long, gravitational strokes of grey and pink, falls in the latter set. Not unlike the
Impressionists – with whom he had better acquainted himself only months before – Pierneef was able to catch the illusive, fleeting effect of light at that moment before a deluge.

Provenance

Stephan Welz & Co in association with Sotheby's, Johannesburg, 30 November 1993, lot 531.