Frans David Oerder (Dutch, 1867-1944), Circa 1902 Apies River
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Notes : PROVENANCE:Purchased from the Langton Art Gallery, Johannesburg, 1932Thence by direct descent to the current ownerAlthough not dated, the present lot is believed to have been painted around the end of the Boer War (1902), when Oerder was a prisoner of war in Pretoria; people often saw him painting in the open veld during this time. He enjoyed the privilege of freedom to roam the Pretoria municipal area and was commissioned to do a few portraits of high-ranking officers.Depicted is a winter scene: three African women walk down the northern slope of the Apies River in the region of Van der Hove's drift. The horses graze in the commonage on the southern bank of the river. Otherwise, the expansive landscape and large scale compares to Landscape near Pretoria, in the collection of the Pretoria Art Museum:"His landscapes are among the first by settler artists who attempted to capture the light, space and bleached colours of the interior plateau of South Africa. He shifted from his palette of the greys and greens of Holland to the yellows, fawns and browns of veld and krans...a kind of sunbleached Impressionism...the hot landscape is the real subject." (Alexander & Cohen, 1990, p.39)BIBLIOGRAPHY:L. Alexander & E. Cohen, 150 South African Paintings: Past and Present, (Cape Town, 1990)
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