Herman Coster

A sketch of Dr Herman Coster (1865-1899) by the South African artist Anton van Wouw (1862-1945). Coster was the State Attorney for the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic) from 1895 to 1897. When the South African War broke out in 1899, he became part of the Boer volunteers, but was killed in action at the Battle of Elandslaagte on 21 October 1899. Van Wouw completed this portraiture sketch in 1902 for a memorial in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. The photograph of the Van Wouw sketch was taken by the South African art historian and lecturer Murray Schoonraad (1932-1991), while he was compiling the Anton van Wouw Archive in 1981. Short biography: Anton van Wouw was born on 26 December 1862 in Driebergen in the Netherlands. He started life after school as a stucco worker in Delft where he learnt to sculpt. He also started to study at the Rotterdam Academy for Arts but stopped his studies to join his father and brother in South Africa. After having a hard time as an artist in the early beginnings of his career of the then Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic), Van Wouw finally got his big break when Sammy Marks, a rich industrialist, commissioned Van Wouw to create the famous Kruger Memorial, currently situated on Church Square in the centre of South Africa's Capital city Pretoria. From there, Van Wouw went from creating over 10 large monuments, as well as more than 100 other sculptures in his lifetime. Anton van Wouw passed away in Pretoria in 1945 just after completing his largest work, a figure of Woman and Children for the Voortrekker Monument.