Title: Thorn trees
Medium: Etching – edition 34/50
Signed and dated 1933
Unframed: 9cm x 13cm
Framed: 45cm x 35cm
Professor P.G. Nel (1990:132) beautifully explained Pierneef’s landscape prints as follows: “The ancient shape of a tree became a formula for neatly organizing the surface area, the heaviness of the trunk offset by the light laciness of its crown. The long horizontal skyline, the strong vertical element and the arch of open sky from the basic pattern of the composition, which can also be interpreted symbolically.”
Pierneef’s prints are characterized by “a balanced peacefulness” which was the result of meticulous planning of the surface area and the composition before he executed the artwork (Nel 1990:133). His tree and landscape works are rhythmic and balanced. He did not want the shapes of nature stylized as “dead” shapes and therefore focused on the depiction of rhythm in his artworks (Nel 1990:132).
It is interesting to note that Pierneef made very few etchings, partly because etching ink was difficult to obtain, and because the process strained the artist’s eyes (Nel 1990:133).
