Notes

These two early paintings bracket Pierneef’s journey to Europe in 1925 and 1926 revealing the impact of his exposure to European art developments and how he forged these into a unique South African style that was to capture the imagination of art lovers here. While both scenes are captured with the brighter palette and lively brushwork of the Impressionists painters, it is in the rendition of the East African mission station that he begins to apply the ideas of Dutch artist and art theorist, Willem van Konijnenburg, whom he had met in Amsterdam, on the role of geometry in creating a parallel between earthly and spiritual realms.