Out span at Potchefstroom

Out span at Potchefstroom is by the German / South African artist Ernst Karl (Erich) Mayer (1876-1960). The painting was done in 1932 just outside the town of Potchefstroom. At that stage farmers would still use their wagons to go to Church once or twice a year to partake in the Christian sacraments of Communion and Baptism. The location where the farmers pitched their wagons are still a camping site today. The painting was donated to the University in 1946 during Mayer's MacFadyen Memorial Hall exhibition. Short Biography: Mayer was born in Karlsruhe in Germany in 1876, he immigrated to the Transvaal in 1898 to come and search his fortune. He however had a long and difficult road in the country. Just over a year after coming to the Transvaal, the South African War (1899-1902) broke out, and he joined the call to arms on the Boer side. Mayer was captured and sent to St. Helena Island as a Prisoner of War. This was first, of three periods Mayer spent in prison during a war. After the war, Mayer made a career mostly by painting small watercolours, usually iconic of the typical South African landscape. In the First World War (1914-1918) as well as the Second World War (1939-1945) Mayer was interred in a concentration camp due to his German heritage. Mayer passed away in 1960.