Springtime, Namaqualand

Pieter Hugo Naudé was one of South Africa’s leading impressionist painters. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1889-1890) and the Kunst Akademie in Munich (1890-1894) and spent a year mixing with the Barbizon painters in Fontainebleau, France. His initial works focused on portraiture, however, with his strong interest in nature and landscape, his oeuvre developed into what are his more renowned paintings en plein air. Naudé's most celebrated paintings are of Namaqualand in Spring, which bring together the vivid colours of the area's wild landscapes. Naudé travelled throughout South Africa, but he lived mainly in Worcester in the Western Cape for the majority of his life. His house and garden became a community art centre after his death.