Notes

Henk Pierneef’s self-confidence, sense of decorative drama, and flair for colour, was on best display in his standout caseins from the late 1920s. So many works from this period, inspired in the main by his travels through the art capitals of Europe in 1925 and 1926, were bold and joyously daring, interpreting familiar subjects through avant-garde ideas drawn from the Divisionist, Symbolist and Fauvist pictures he had so recently studied firsthand. The present lot, executed in 1928, is an exquisite example: a quintessential bushveld scene presented through a revolutionary lens. This small casein reveals a vast African landscape with gnarled trees in the foreground, moody mountains on the horizon, and a theatrical cloudburst above. The trees, which act like glowing trellises in the landscape, are painted quickly with flickering brushstrokes. The branches, which are angular, notched and spiked, catch the early evening light: dazzling streaks of amber race across the bark. The canopy of leaves is made up of overlapping calligraphic markings: first an inky purple, then burnt orange, then flashes of shining bronze. Far behind, shadows move across the mountains, darkening the eastern slopes but leaving the western peaks bathed in shimmering pink light. But the sky might be the focus of the action: gloomy clouds build from the margins into a cumulus column in the centre of the composition, painted with soft swipes of rose, cream and flamingo pink. Pierneef’s individual touches on the paper seem so plain and economical, but the overall effect is spellbinding.