17 Facts About Pierneef

Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef, was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters.

Pierneef's style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines and colour to present the harmony and order in nature.

Pierneef was born in Pretoria, from Dutch and Boer parentage.

Pierneef started his high school career at the Staatsmodelschool there, where he took his first art classes, but it was interrupted by the Second Boer War.

Pierneef returned to Pretoria at the age of 18, where he met with and was encouraged by already established South African artists such as his godfather Anton van Wouw, Hugo Naude and Frans Oerder.

Pierneef worked at the State Library during the night for almost ten years and painted in his studio during the day.

In 1910, Pierneef married Agatha Delen, a woman 12 years his senior.

Pierneef held his first solo exhibition in 1913, to great critical acclaim, some even describing his work as that of a genius, which inspired him greatly.

In 1918, Pierneef left the State Library and started a career as an art lecturer at the Heidelberg College of Education.

Pierneef resigned as lecturer and became a full-time painter in 1923, due to differences of opinion regarding the curriculum with the Department of Education.

Pierneef visited South West Africa from 1923 to 1924, where he sketched extensively for paintings that would later be completed in his studio.

Pierneef divorced Agatha in 1923 and married May in 1924.

The couple visited Europe from 1925 to 1926, where Pierneef promoted his art and studied the newest art movements.

Pierneef held a solo exhibition in the Netherlands, where his Bushmen drawings drew great attention.

In 1927 Pierneef's daughter was born and he held a very successful exhibition of 86 of his works in Pretoria.

Pierneef accepted a commission in 1929 to paint 32 panels for the interior of the then-new Johannesburg Railway Station, a task he completed by 1932.

Pierneef received numerous honours and awards during his lifetime, including:.