Union Buildings

Union Buildings from the Union Buildings series by South African artist JH Pierneef (1886-1957) was painted in 1912. Pierneef was upset with the construction of the Union Buildings on Meintjieskop in Pretoria. He's view was that the hill should be kept a natural area and several well-known figures in the city protested the location of the new government building. The promise made to them by the Union Building committee is that the natural landscape would be kept intact. Pierneef created an entire series of 12 works that showed the destruction created by the construction. To illustrate this the drawing was done in grey somber colors. The series was donated to the University in 1980 by the daughter of the artist. Short Biography: Jacob Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef was born in 1886 in Pretoria, South Africa. As a child, he studied art at school, along with other students who would later become well-known artists, such as Fanie Eloff for sculpture and Gordon Leith for architecture. In 1900, Pierneef went with his parents to The Netherlands as a means to avoid the hostilities of the South African War (1899-1902) where he studied at the Rotterdam Art Academy. Pierneef returned to South Africa in 1904 and studied under the prominent artists Anton van Wouw, Frans Oerder and Hugo Naude. In 1913, Pierneef had his first solo exhibition and rapidly became one of the most recognised names in South African art. In 1929 he was commissioned to create panels for the new Johannesburg Railway station, a project which today would be seen as one of his greatest achievements. Pierneef received an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria in 1957 in recognition of his work, shortly after in the same year he passed away in Pretoria.