Venda Mother

This work titled, Venda Mother is by the South African artist and author Dr Barbara Eleanor Harcourt Tyrrell (1912-2015). The painting shows a woman with a calabash used as a spoon and a drinking cup to drink traditional brewed beer. The woman is kneeling on a striped blue cotton cloth which is traditional to Venda culture. Around her neck, is a series of beads associated with ancestral spirits as they are handed down from generation to generation. The painting, is one of a series of 59 in the collection done by Tyrrell for her book titled, African Heritage in 1983.Tyrrell was a lifelong scholar in studying African rituals and clothing of the traditional people of South Africa and she authored several books on the subject. The University of Pretoria purchased this collection from the artist in 1988. Tyrrell is known internationally for her detailed costume studies of the traditional dress of the indigenous peoples of southern Africa. Short biography: Barbara Eleanor Harcourt Tyrrell was born on 15 March 1912 in Durban, South Africa. Her father, died while she was a small child. He had occupied the post of assistant magistrate and later interpreter in the Department of Native Affairs and had been stationed in various Natal towns, his final post was in Eshowe in Zululand. Tyrrell's grandfather was Frederick Fynney, interpreter and companion to the Zulu King Cetshwayo during the latter's visit to Queen Victoria in 1882. Tyrrell trained as an artist at the former University of Natal during the 1930's, when the Fine Arts Department was still linked with that of the former Technical College. Tyrrell was 103 years old when she passed away in 2015.