Notes

Pierneef was in the Cape in 1921, staying mainly in Stellenbosch, and typically with his friend, playwright and future biographer, JFW Grosskopf. He exhibited at Die Uitspan in April, before returning in October to prepare for a show at Long Street’s Ashbey Hall in Cape Town. Having made numerous linocuts of vernacular buildings in Pretoria in 1920, Pierneef continued this pictorial record of local architecture in his Cape surrounds. Intrigued by the historic gables and elegant proportions, he made a number of fine paintings of Cape Dutch landmarks, of which the current is one of the most evocative and best-known. The Old Wine Cellar, the title Grosskopf gave when he published an image of the work in the artist’s monograph, reveals a beautiful façade, dappled in shadow behind ancient oak trees, on Du Toits Plaas, Krommerivier. It is painted with some style: the wriggling pink brushstrokes where the sun breaks through the trees are particularly memorable, as are the bleached cellar doors with their blue undercoat. Pierneef was clearly pleased with this quintessential Cape view as he revisited it numerous times in subsequent years. A number of spectacular caseins of the scene exist.

Literature

JFW Grosskopf (1945) Jan Hendrik Pierneef, Die Man en Sy Werk, Pretoria: Van Schaik, illustrated in black and white on page 59, plate number 44.