Notes

Accompanied by a copy of Phillipa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke, Johannesburg: Standard Bank of South Africa.

For Peter Clarke, Tesselaarsdal became an escape from the hardships of his life in Simonstown. He said:

"My heart is in this place and I love it. That is so true and so definite. There is always a place, a kind of extra-special one, that a man sees and is attracted to and loves intensely… with everything that is in him because that particular place…holds everything that his soul seeks."¹

In the present lot, Landscape (1964), the beauty and quiet solitude of Tesselaarsdal is evident. While there are no human figures present, the presence of humans is suggested by the patchwork of fields and a line of cattle grazing through yellow wheat. In regards to the stylised clouds in the sky, a weaving of lines and angles, Clarke said “I have spent a long time looking at clouds. You can find one type of cloud here that is unique simply because of the topography…The sky is never really cloudless [here]”²

1. Peter Clarke (1964) 'Winter Shepherding'. Contrast X: South African Quarterly 3(2). October. Page 48.
2. Phillippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke, Johannesburg: Standard Bank of South Africa. Page 108.

Excerpt from a letter written to Michael Stevenson Contemporary, attached to the back of the painting :

“In the 1950s I paid annual 3 to 4 month visits to the village Tesselaarsdal in the Caledon district of the W. Cape. During my visits I did a lot of walking often with shepherd-friends & their flocks or else on my own. I became familiar with the area. But the landscape you asked about is imaginary. However, it captures the essence of the countryside, the coloured patchwork of fields late in the year, the distant grazing cattle below the hills, the silent play of wind-tossed clouds. I’d forgotten this painting & can only imagine it went to Australia (either purchased or as a gift) with a South African owner. I was acquainted with a number of people who, fed up, frustrated during the apartheid era, decided to leave the country. The scene is so peaceful perhaps looking at it helped to ease the pain of exile.” Peter Clarke, 18 October 2005.

Provenance

Mr Phiroshaw Camay, Union Leader.

Private Collection.

Literature

Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder, The Art of Peter Clarke. Johannesburg: The Standard Bank of South Africa. Illustrated in colour on page 108.