Pieter Wenning: Backyard, Malta Farm, Observatory - SOLD

Pieter Wenning
Backyard, Malta Farm, Observatory - 1918
Oil on Canvas
34 x 46 cm
Signed bottom right
Sold - 2009

Born Pieter Willem Frederik Wenning, 9 September 1873 at The Hague, The Netherlands
Died 24 January 1921 at the age of 47, Pretoria

Although Wenning first painted Malta Farm on his Cape visit in 1917, he returned again and again to paint it anew. There are at least ten recorded works depicting different views of this farmstead (nine oils and one watercolour) - one of which, originally part of the Rogoff collection, is according to Boonzaier and Lipshitz, considered today his finest work.

Boonzaier and Lipshitz point out that as an artist;
Wenning was attracted to the simple and neglected aspects of his surroundings, rather than to the imposing and picturesque.
And comment that;
“Malta Farm”, one of the earliest Cape landmarks, dating back to the days of Simon van der Stel, was indeed a landscape painter’s dream. The imposing structure, with its rich, silky, moss-covered thatched roof, its mouldy, weather-worn walls and its ancient, windswept trees, made a deep impression on Wenning.

This work is a fine example of one of Wenning’s favourite subjects, and was finished on Tuesday 27 August 1918, according to DC Boonzaier’s diary. Always a plein-airist, irrespective of the weather conditions, Wenning had started this painting the week before, and returned to Malta Farm to finish it after Boonzaier’s criticism that it did not match the quality of his first Malta Farm painting of 1917. The original title and price, recorded on Boonzaier’s list of paintings completed by Wenning on his fourth Cape painting excursion of July to October 1918, is;
“No. 4. Malta’, Observatory Road - with Wooden Trough in foreground £15-15-0”

Provenance:
Collection of Mr. & Mrs. S Mullne, Cape Town

Exhibited:
South African National Gallery, Cape Town (Label on back of original frame)

Illustrated:
Gregoire Boonzaier and I Lippy Lipshitz, Wenning, 1949, Plate 76
J du P Scholtz, D C Boonzaier en Pieter Wenning – verslag van ‘n vriendskap, 1973, p 126, Plate 98

Bibliography:
Gregoire Boonzaier and I Lippy Lipshitz, Wenning, 1949, pp 25, 26 and 49
J du P Scholtz, D C Boonzaier en Pieter Wenning – verslag van ‘n vriendskap, 1973, pp 60 and 61

To view the Pieter Wenning web page click here