Kommandoboom, Northern Transvaal

Notes

A Kommandoboom (Afrikaans for commando tree) is a non-specific large tree in the South African landscape made famous as the subject of iconic landscape paintings by Pierneef. Suggested by the title, large, prominent trees in the old Transvaal region often served as a natural landmark, meeting place or assembly point for local militias, which is how such trees earned their descriptive Afrikaans name. The prominent tree in the foreground in the present lot was likely used as a base camp for Pierneef as he travelled through the then Northern Transvaal terrain taking inspiration for his paintings produced later in studio.

Works like Kommandoboom, op pad na Sibasa (1930) and the present lot executed in 1928, were created at the dawn of what Esmé Berman and P G Nel describe as the artist's celebrated period of 'discovery and mastery'. In these compositions, the tree is depicted with a monumental and structural presence, using simplified geometric planes to emphasise the majestic harmony of the highveld.

This artwork is a quintessential example of the artist’s impressionistic motif. Pierneef’s first professional European tour occurred in 1925. This exposure to international modernism profoundly influenced his style. The present lot clearly reveals the impact it had on the artist, seen particularly in the flat planes of colour in the foreground and the mountain, short, quick brushstrokes in the formation of the tree, and the gestural nature throughout. Pierneef’s typical palette of lavenders, purples, and greens is complemented here by burnt oranges and gentle pinks, seen in similarly in Wildevyeboom (Wild Fig Tree) (fig 1) produced in 1930, held now at the University of Pretoria.

(fig 1)Wildevyeboom (Wild Fig Tree) (1930) University of Pretoria Museum Collection.