Notes

Pierneef experimented with a variety of new visual languages; impressionism, pointillism, and abstraction to varying degrees following his return from England and Europe in 1926. Having seen the Canadian Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, he would have been exposed to the Group of Seven artists, particularly J E H MacDonald’s The Solemn Land, which
was included in that exhibition.

The low compositional vantage point from which this painting was recorded, allows the viewer to explore the tranquil riverine valley, cloaked in shadow, along flickering waterways, which give way to the steeper brown, green and ochre banks, and ascending hillsides which in turn, cradle a massive glowing orange and pink cliff structure above.

Red Kloof, dating from 1928, is a large-scale painting, rendered in stylised simplicity, emphasising the monumental mountainous landform and is a precursor to the Johannesburg Station Panels which he began in 1929. Compare Pierneef’s celebrated Station Panel titled Waterval Boven.

Provenance

Mr H M Slade, Pierneef’s legal advisor in Pretoria, and thence by descent to the current owners.

Stephen Welz & Co in Association with Sotheby’s, Johannesburg, 2 November 1992, lot 439.

Naspers Limited.