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J H Pierneef

J.H. Pierneef paintings are currently the best investment art.

Pierneef’s work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Henry Taylor Gallery, King George VI Art Gallery, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery. Several knowledgeable and affluent art collectors boast possession of this revered old master’s art works.
Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (13 August 1886 Pretoria – 4 October 1957), was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. Most of his landscapes were of the South African highveld, which provided a lifelong source of inspiration for him. Pierneef’s style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines, uninhabited dramatic light and colour to present the harmony and order in nature. His bushveld scenes draw in the highest demand and prices, in particular his paintings of Acacia trees. The diversity of his work made him popular.
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. His second solo exhibition was held two years later and was also very well received. Pierneef set the trend for a unique South African style. In 1923 he visited Namibia, where he sketched extensively for paintings that would later be completed in his studio. He also held a solo exhibition in the Netherlands, where his bushveld drawings drew great attention. These would later be considered some of his best works.
When his daughter was born he held a very successful exhibition of 86 of his works in Pretoria. However, during his solo exhibition the following year, he had some abstract modern works on display, which were very badly received, compelling him to revert to his old style. Pierneef was commissioned to paint 32 panels for the interior of the then-new Johannesburg Railway Station. The panels are still on display today in Graaff-Reinet and are considered to be some of his best work. He was also commissioned to do seven murals for South Africa House, the South African embassy on Trafalgar Square, London.