Nita Spilhaus - Lion's Head & Table Mountain

Nita Spilhaus - Lions Head & Table Mountain

Description:      Engraving depicting Lions Head and Kloof Corner section of Table Mountain

Engraving Dimensions: image 19 x 26 cm excluding frame

Frame Dimensions: 42 x 48 cm.

Artist Markings: Inscribed with the artists monogram NS in the plate and signed in pencil. 

Nita Spilhaus 1878 - 1967

Pauline Augusta Wilhelmina “Nita” Spilhaus was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1878. She studied at the Lübeck School of Art, the Kunst Akademie in Munich, and the Thanlow Swedish Painting School in Paris.

In and during 1907 she moved to Cape Town.  In the mid-1920s Spilhaus returned to Germany, living and working there until 1938, when she moved back to South Africa where she would remain until her death in Cape Town in 1967.

She participated in a number of group exhibitions in France, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Rhodesia, starting in 1900. In 1917 she had a joint exhibition with Pieter Wenning and Hugo Naudé, and in 1920, the first of several solo exhibitions was held in Johannesburg. 1923 saw another joint exhibition, this time with Ruth Prowse and Florence Zerffi. Nita Spilhaus' etchings and engravings range generally between R1 500.00 to R3 500.00 depending on the subject matter and relative availability of the etching concerned.  This particular item is not widely traded or readily available and is said to have been one of a limited number she produced.

The item also appears to be signed (very small) in pencil "Nita Spilhaus" at the bottom right hand corner of the etching plate.