Tapestry of Landscape with Trees and Bushes; Cartoon for Tapestry of Landscape with Trees and Bushes, two

Notes

The tapestry was hand-woven by Marguerite Stephens and includes a collage study commissioned by Engen. The present lot hung in the marble-clad foyer of the office.

"Verster's colours are wide-ranging, from vast strokes of gentle pinks, mauves and blues, to shorter, sharper turgid oranges and quicker, darker shades. Woven by Marguerite Stephens in her studio at Halfway House in the Transvaal, all the colours were dyed by hand in the workshop of her mother, Coral Stephens."¹

In the present lot, the landscape depicted unfolds as a rolling, undulating terrain that captures the essential character of the South African countryside. It emphasises the expansiveness of the open field with a composition that engages both space and atmosphere. The sky, rendered through subtle blue and white woven threads, creates a cloudscape that permeates more than half of the tapestry. The tactility of the woven surface adds a dimensionality that painting cannot achieve, creating a felt landscape with gentle rolling of the terrain that creates a rhythmic flow across the work.

Small white flowers punctuate the grassy foreground, a delicate counterpoint to the larger sweeps of the landscape. These details highlight Verster's intimate observation of the natural topography while maintaining a vast sense of space. Most compelling is his execution of the horizon line, which is defined by what appears to be a row of tightly packed trees, almost like a forest. The distant tree line provides stability and creates a sense of spatial depth.

Despite its apparent tranquillity, the present lot carries an undertone of unease and tension, in line with the broader themes found in Verster's work, as seen in his Fragile Paradise series that saw him exploring fragility and vulnerability. The series was described by writer Matthew Blackman as "wild and tangled forms (that) capture something of the intoxicating, almost choking, beauty of South Africa's east coast. These forms, like the politics, are unsettled, disturbing, and yet they contain a sensual intimation of an earthly paradise - one rendered fragile by both its environmental and political circumstances."

Andrew Verster studied design at the Camberwell School of Art in London (1955-59) and furthered his studies at Reading University (1959-60). Upon returning to South Africa, he lectured at the University of Durban-Westville and the Natal Technikon until 1976, when he gave up teaching to become a full-time painter.

He designed sets and costumes for numerous stage productions and completed a wide range of public and private commissions. He undertook major commissions in various media, such as a series of hand-woven Mohair tapestries for Engen, etched glass doors for the Brenthurst Library in Johannesburg, murals for the BMW building in Midrand and an etched glass skylight for the University of Cape Town's education building. A noted writer of short stories, articles, and radio plays, he exhibited widely across South Africa, Europe and the United Kingdom. He held more than 50 solo exhibitions and is represented in major public and private collections, including the South African National Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, and the Universities of Witwatersrand. He received two Art-SA-Today awards (1967 and 1979) and was honoured with two retrospective exhibitions at the Durban Art Gallery in 1997 and 2019.

^1. R J Angel (no date) Mobil Court Art Collection: A Collection of South African Visual Art, Mobil Oil Southern Africa, unpaginated.

Provenance

The Engen Collection.