Street Scene with Buildings and Figures, Cnr of Church and Loop st, CT

Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier was a South African painter best known for his pastel-hued depictions of towns and landscapes around Cape Town. His geometric style was influenced by South African artist Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning, but also Modernists such as Paul Cézanne, Georges Braque, and Maurice Utrillo. Born on July 31, 1909 in Cape Town, South Africa, Boonzaier went on to study at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London and traveled around Europe throughout the 1930s, gathering the French painting influences that were to define the rest of his career. Upon moving back to Cape Town, Boonzaier notably began portraying poorer parts of the city in his paintings. He was an active protestor of apartheid and used his position on the board of the South African National Gallery in Cape Town to further this cause. Today, his works are in the collections of the Museum Afrika in Johannesburg, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, and the Iziko South Africa National Gallery in Cape Town, among others. Boonzaier died on April 22, 2005 in Onrusrivier, South Africa.