Title: Farm with large trees
Medium: Oil on board
Signed and inscribed
Unframed: 29cm x 45cm
Framed: 53cm x 69cm
Wenning was one of the most significant South African artists of the early 20th century. He had no art training and only began painting at the age of 41. Boonzaier and Lipshitz (1949:52) explained that Wenning produced “little more than 300 paintings and innumerable drawings and etchings” in only a 5-year art career.
“He was able to express convincingly and effortlessly the tender green of the Cape spring, the golden tints of autumn, the bleached grasses of the Transvaal highveld, or the deep, rich olive greens of the mossy oaks in Newlands” (Boonzier & Lipshitz 1949:54). The painting, Farm with large trees, especially shows off Wenning’s masterful use of colour. “Wenning greens” as seen in the painting are often applied in South African art criticism to define certain greens, but the colour he is most know for was his subtle use of the colour grey.
