Notes

Johannes Meintjes catalogue number JM 274.

Copy of the Evening Post newspaper clipping about the work adhered to the reverse.

"Ek het giseraan om 8.45nm vanaf Port Elizabeth terugggekom na 'n wilde en woeste tien dae in die Baai. My tentoonstelling was in die plaaslike kunssaal en het P.E. tot op sy fondamente geskud. Daar was 'n geskil oor my werk in die pers, stringe briewe wat aanval en nog meer wat verdedig; kolomme publisiteit. Ek was twee keer op die Evening Post se voorblad, en die briefwisseling was hoofsaaklik oor my skildery Jong Minnaars. Die geskil is ook op die voorblaaie van ander koerante gemeld. Bedags en saans het hordes die galery besoek, hoofsaaklik uit nuuskierigheid, want verkope was nie so waffers nie. Die prestige en publisiteit was egter ongeëwenaard in my loopbaan. In daardie geweste is ek nou beroemd en kon skaars in die openbaar beweeg."¹

Copy of the Evening Post newspaper clipping about the work adhered to the reverse:

‘I returned from Port Elizabeth yesterday at 8.45pm after a wild ten days in the Bay. My exhibition was in the local art gallery and shook PE to its foundations. There was a dispute over my work in the press, strings of letters attacking and more defending; columns published. I was on the front page of the Evening Post twice, and the correspondence was mainly about my painting Young Lovers. The dispute was also reported on the covers of other newspapers. In the evenings, hordes visited the gallery, mainly out of curiosity, because sales were not so good. However, the prestige and publicity were unmatched in my career. In those regions, I am now famous and could barely move in public.’¹

1. Johannes Meintjes (1975) The Diary of Johannes Meintjes: Volume III, April 1951–1955, Molteno: Bamboesberg, page 68.

Provenance

Mr and Mrs Ray Edwards, Port Elizabeth.

Stephan Welz & Co in association with Sotheby's, Cape Town, 4 November 2003, lot 647.

Stephan Welz & Co in association with Sotheby's, Johannesburg, 27 March 2006, lot 380.

Private Collection.

Exhibited

Arts Hall, Port Elizabeth, Johannes Meintjes Exhibition, 21 to 26 July 1952, catalogue number 24.

Literature

Athol Fugard (1952) 'Art and Morality', Evening Post, Port Elizabeth, 25 July.

Unknown (1952) 'Johannes could draw before he could write,' Evening Post, Port Elizabeth, 26 July, illustrated.

Johannes Meintjes (1975) Dagboek van Johannes Meintjes: Deel III, April 1951–1955, Molteno: Bamboesberg, page 68.