LANDSCAPE ART IN SOUTH AFRICA 



and distance are supreme. It must ever be remembered that South 

 Africa is essentially a dry country, and that much of it is a plateau, and 

 that its air has perforce those qualities of refraction which eliminate 

 miles and bring close to us the far mountains. No one can ever forget 

 a twilight on the veld, when above the darkened world the rosy glow 

 lingers, slowly dying about the summit of the hills. This is the hour 

 which has appealed especially to the South African artist, and which is 

 at once his delight and his despair. It would need a second Turner to 

 fix eternally these noble and evanescent tints. But there is something 

 fine in the mere attempt, and it is an attempt which nearly every South 

 African artist has essayed. These ashen and purple landscapes are the 

 very genius of South Africa, and he who achieves their conquest will 

 be the first great painter of our land. But the artists now at work under- 

 stand the limitations of impressionism, and where one feels the spirit of 

 Africa in their work, one feels it more in the underlying emotion than 

 in the presentation of typical scenes ; and that, perhaps, is the only 

 sound method of building up a national school. The obvious must be 

 made impressive by a point of view that is not obvious. In other words, 

 national feeling does not display itself by outward signs so much as 

 by something deep and ingrained which only emerges in hints and 

 glimpses. 



In writing of South Africa one must not forget to speak of its towns, 

 which have their own varied and distinct personality, and which are, 

 naturally, easier to paint than the country itself. The charm of these 

 places lies in the exotic elements of outlying quarters rather than in the 

 main thoroughfares and busy streets. For instance, the Malay quarter 

 of Cape Town, the Indian quarter of Durban, and the compounds of the 

 Rand are full of suggestive touches, and they have been freely painted 

 by our artists. On the other hand, the Dutch villages, scattered all over 

 the Union, have in the main but one kind of individuality, and that in- 

 dividuality is closely allied to the soil. Paint one of them, and you have 

 painted them all. But this does not apply, however, to the isolated 

 Dutch farm-houses, which, though fairly uniform in architecture, are 

 individualized by a thousand different backgrounds and surroundings. 

 These farm-houses give one a strange feeling of inevitability, and are 

 extraordinarily sympathetic to the eye ; dignified and austere, they yet 

 blend with every soft outline, and one simply cannot imagine any other 

 kind of building in their place. Such architecture is a great help to the 

 pictorial artist, and the pity is that utilitarian and European motives 

 have disfigured our cities and drowned the ancient glamour. 

 After these general considerations it is now time that I said a few words 

 about the artists whose work is presented here. Not all of them are 

 South African-born, but none of them are mere visitors to the country ; 

 and, as I remarked before, their basic influence is not so much aca- 

 116 



