Anton van Wouw Departure of Piet Retief tile

A large earthenware tile depicting the departure of Piet Retief (a Voortrekker Leader) by the South African sculptor, Anton van Wouw (1862-1945). This lead-glazed earthenware tile shows a central group of four figures on horseback, the one in the middle raising his hat on high, wagons in the background and horsemen to the left and cattle and sheep to the right. In August 1938 the pioneer South African sculptor, Anton van Wouw, received a commission to make a panel to commemorate the centennial of the Great Trek, which would be erected at each school in Johannesburg. This tile forms part of the extensive Van Wouw Collection held by the University of Pretoria. The tile was made by the Pretoria Potteries.
Short biography: Anton van Wouw was born on 26 December 1862 in Driebergen in the Netherlands. He started life after school as a stucco worker in Delft where he learnt to sculpt. He also started to study at the Rotterdam Academy for Arts, but stopped his studies to join his father and brother in South Africa. After having a hard time as an artist in the early beginnings of his career of the then Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic), Van Wouw finally got his big break when Sammy Marks, a rich industrialist, commissioned Van Wouw to create the famous Kruger Memorial, currently situated on Church Square in the centre of South Africa's Capital city Pretoria. From there, Van Wouw's art went from strength to strength creating over 10 large monuments, as well as more than 100 other sculptures in his lifetime. Anton van Wouw passed away in Pretoria in 1945 just after completing his largest work, a figure of Woman and Children for the Voortrekker Monument.