This original pencil drawing by Chas. E. Peers, entitled 'Cleaning up, Umkomas', was drawn in the 1920s and depicts a man servicing his boat. On the reverse side is an unfinished drawing entitled 'Drift from Honeymoon Creek, Umkomas'
Signed bottom left. Unframed. Size: 260 x 185 mm. The condition is good but the paper is discoloured in a few places around the edge (this will be hidden by the mount). Provenance: The collection of the artist's granddaughter, Susan van der Horst (née Peers).
Further information about the artist is given below.
CHARLES ERNEST PEERS
Born 1875 Belfast, Northern Ireland. Died 1944 Higgovale, Cape Town.
Youth spent in Liverpool, where he recorded the shipping activity on the Mersey. Spent a brief period at the Liverpool School of Art. Came to South Africa in 1904 and settled in Cape Town.
Elected a member of the South African Society of Artists in 1905. Chairman of the South African Fine Arts Association. Winner of the Cape Times poster competition in 1924. Member of the South African Institute of Art 1926. Invited by the New Group to participate in their first exhibition in 1938, subsequently being elected President of the Group, an office he held until his death.
Made a living as a chromo-lithographer with various printing companies, including Galvin & Sales in Cape Town. Illustrated The Seven Wonders of South Africa by Hedley Chilvers and The Coast of Hermanus by Will Costello. Produced a series of cigarette cards for the United Tobacco Company album Our Land / Ons Land (1939) and several illustrated calendars during the 1930s for the Vacuum Oil Company.
Worked mainly in watercolour but also produced oils and pastels as well as pencil drawings, etchings, linocuts and lithographs. Concentrated on landscapes, architecture and maritime subjects.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibition Lezard's Gallery, Johannesburg, 1923. Joint exhibition with Allerley Glossop, Taylor Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, 1924. Solo exhibition, Dempers and Wiley’s Art Gallery, Cape Town, 1924. Various group exhibitions from 1926, including the inaugural exhibition of the South African Institute of Art, Durban, 1927. Joint exhibition with J. Pope Ellis, Cape Town,1939. Represented in all annual New Group exhibitions from 1938 to 1945. Represented in the exhibition of South African Art at the Tate Gallery, London, 1948. Prestige exhibition to commemorate the centenary of his birth, South African National Gallery, 1975.
Public collections
Albany Museum, Grahamstown; Cape Town Municipal Collection; Durban Art Gallery; Iziko Museums, Cape Town (South African National Gallery & Slave Lodge); Museum Afrika, Johannesburg; Old House Museum, Durban; Pretoria Art Museum; Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg; University of Cape Town; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley.
References
Lucy Alexander and Evelyn Cohen, 150 South African Paintings, Past and Present, Struik, 1990
Esmé Berman, Art and Artists of South Africa, Southern Book Publishers, 1993.
Grania Ogilvie, The Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors, Everard Read, 1988.
