Union Buildings II

Union Buildings II by the South African artist Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957) was painted in 1912. Pierneef was disappointed and devastated by the building construction of the Union Buildings on Meintjieskop in Pretoria. He was of the view that the hill should be kept a natural area, undeveloped and several well-known figures in the city protested against the location of the new government building. A compromise was made by the Union Building Committee that as much of the natural landscape would be kept intact as possible during the construction. As a result, Pierneef painted a whole series of 12 works that decpited the destruction of Meintjieskop during the construction period of the Union Buildings. To illustrate the destructive process of building upon a natural and beautiful hill, his paintings were done in grey sombre colours. The series of Pierneef was donated by his daugther to the University of Pretoria in 1980.. 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.