Silver Trees at Kirstenbosch, Cape

Provenance

Inherited from the artist by his nephew, Prof W du T Naudé in 1941 and thence by descent to the current owner in 2005.

Notes

The elegant Silver trees, with their light stems and distinctive silver-green foliage, feature prominently in this composition, extending sinuously from the centre to the upper right portion of the work. Scientifically known as Leucadendron argenteum, these trees are an endangered species endemic to the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, near Rhodes Memorial
in the Cape Peninsula.¹ Their shimmering leaves catch the light with a luminous effect, which Hugo Naudé captured with sensitivity. A passionate admirer of indigenous South African
flora, Naudé frequently returned to the Silver tree as a motif in his landscapes,² as can be seen in a related work titled, Wooded Landscape (Strauss & Co, Cape Town, 11 April 2021, lot 543, Sold R56 900.)

Naudé’s painting method was rooted in both structure and spontaneity. Initially Naudé would map out the composition, showing the receding compositional planes, and then populate these
spaces with natural volumes – mountainsides, trees, and clusters of shrubbery - rendered with rapid, expressive brushwork, resulting in landscapes animated by colour, light, and atmosphere. These qualities were often enhanced by his long-standing friendship with fellow artist Nita Spilhaus. United by their shared training at the Munich Kunstakademie, the two artists frequently
painted en plein air together during Naudé’s visits to Cape Town. Their walks from Spilhaus’ Constantia home, Hohenort, up to Kirstenbosch became opportunities to immerse themselves in
the natural splendour of the Cape, capturing its changing moods with immediacy and vitality.³

^1. (no date) Cape Silver Tree, iNaturalist, online, accessed 25 August 2025.

^2. Correspondence with the current owner.

^3. Peter Elliot (2015) Nita Spilhaus (1878-1967) and Her Artist Friends in the Cape During the Early Twentieth Century, Cape Town: Peter Elliot, pages 54-61.