JACOB HENDRIK PIERNEEF
(1886 – 1957)
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef was born in Pretoria in 1886, the year that Johannesburg was founded. His father, Gerrit, a Hollander, built the first house in the new town, in Market Street, his mother was the daughter of a Trekker.
He attended the Staats Model School in Pretoria, where he excelled at drawing. During the Anglo-Boer war the family was deported to Holland. In 1900, Pierneef studied drawing under an architect at Hilversum. He worked part time in a paint factory, and attended night classes in drawing. In 1901, his parents allowed him to study at Rotterdam Academy, and to visit Rome.
At the end of the Anglo-Boer war the family returned to Pretoria. Pierneef had to work in a tobacco shop, but he continued to study artistic techniques, encouraged by his godfather, Anton van Wouw.
Between 1905-08, he studied under Frans Oerder. In 1908 he studied etching and wood engraving under G.S. Smithard. His first oil painting was sold in 1910. He received an appointment in 1912 at the State Library, Pretoria. Pierneef exhibited as a member of The Individualists Group and in 1917 he was elected a member of The South African Society of Art. He drew illustrations for "Die Brandwag" and executed many linocuts.
Pierneef was appointed Lecturer in Art in Pretoria and Heidelberg Normal Colleges.
He enjoyed travelling the countryside. Pierneef studied and copied rock paintings and exhibited his work in Cape Town and Stellenbosch. In 1923 his paintings began to sell, and he decided on a full-time career in art, and went off on a painting expedition to SWA, the first of many such trips.
Throughout his career Pierneef had patrons for his paintings. He was acknowledged as the foremost interpreter of the South African landscape, the primary theme of his work; he seldom portrayed still-life or the human figure, and rarely did he introduce animals or people into his large scenic compositions. He depicted homesteads, city-views and mining establishments, yet there is little sign of human activity in his detached perspectives; the symbols of life in his silent, ordered world of nature are established in the stylized, isolated forms of trees and other verdure.
By the end of the Thirties, Pierneef´s name and style had stamped themselves on the minds of an ever-widening, national audience.
In the Forties and early Fifties viewers found reassurance in the familiarity of his forms. His subject matter and viewpoint were essentially South African and appeared to many of his countrymen to represent the growing spirit of national independence which was freeing their culture from its long subservience to Europe.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
S.A National Gallery, Cape Town.
Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Pretoria Art Museum.
Durban Art Gallery.
William Humpreys Galley, Kimberley.
King George VI Gallery, Port Elizabeth.
Ann Bryant Art Gallery, East London.
Rembrandt Art Foundation.
UNISA
University of the Witwatersrand.
A.C White Gallery, Bloemfontein.
Johannesburg Railway Station Museum.
Sandton Municipal Collection.
Pietersburg Collection.
