Notes

"On 12 January 1926, the Pierneefs sailed on a freighter, S.S. Toba, via Port Said down the east coast. They were the only two passengers on board and, since the ship had to spend from between two and six days at every port, Pierneef was often able to go out and paint the countryside to his heart's content. 

Despite the scorching heat and the fact that he and May were burnt almost black by the tropical sun, Pierneef wrote to Steele from Lourenço Marques that he had worked very hard."

PG Nel. (1990) JH Pierneef: His life and his work, Johannesburg: Perskor. Page 67.

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.