Teufelsbach Near Okahandja, S.W.A. ,1923
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Notes : Not long after he spent time as an art lecturer at the College of Education in Heidelberg and in Pretoria, Pierneef decided to pursue a career as a full-time artist. This decision was made in the early nineteen twenties, when the artist was aged 35.It was during this time that his life-long friend, the Stellenbosch academic, JFW Grosskopf, persuaded the artist to venture down to the Cape Province to acquaint himself with the lush and often rain-soaked scenery of the Cape. In 1921 Pierneef presented this body of work at his first Cape exhibition and it was here where he met the South West African (Namibian) artist, Hans Aschenborn (1888-1931) who had immigrated to that country in 1909. Aschenborn’s account of that country with its parched landscapes and the vastness of the Namibian wilderness inspired and captured the imagination of Pierneef. He arrived in South West Africa for the first time in 1923, the first of many return visits to that country.This landscape was probably painted at sunrise during Pierneef’s very first visit and right from his first encounter with these desolate arid plains and outcrops he recognised the significance of capturing light to create dramatic contrast on the picture plane. By utilising a darkened foreground the artist accentuates the visual impact of the scene plus key compositional features such as the rather compacted mountain range of the Okahandja region as well as the feathery cloud formations.
Eunice Basson
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