![Wilderness Beach - Nita Spilhaus](https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/sites/default/files/styles/adaptive/public/notices/Wilderness%20Beach%20-%20Nita%20Spilhaus.jpg?itok=WtKRD2Km)
Alerting readers in Johannesburg area to the lovely exhibition of the paintings and etchings of Nita Spilhaus, currently on exhibition at the SANLAM Art Lounge, 6th floor SANLAM building in Sandton , 11 Alice Lane (Parking on ground floor, take the lift to the 6th floor). Tel SANLAM on 083 457 2699 or 021 946 3359. The exhibition is titled Nita Spilhaus (1878-1967), Paintings, Drawing and Graphics.
The Exhibition (Peter Elliott)
On Saturday, we enjoyed a delightful guided tour given by her great nephew, Peter Elliott. Peter has recently published a book on the artworks of Nita Spilhaus and her contemporaries (click here to read review). I enjoyed his book, "Nita Spilhaus (1878-1967) and her artist friends in the Cape in the early twentieth century". The book is on sale at the exhibition. The special exhibition price for the Standard edition (softcover) is R300. The Collector's edition (hardcover in slipcase plus Fine Art print) is also available, at R900. Any additional enquiries on the book to the author: peter@petermelliott.com
Nita (1878-1967) was a Cape artist who came to South Africa from Germany as a young woman to join her Spilhaus family. She was a professional, and accomplished artist and had trained in different studios in Europe. She is regarded as a Cape impressionist and enjoyed close friendships with a number of other artists of the city in the early 20th century. Her most productive years at the Cape were between 1910 and 1925. Nita was particularly drawn to portraying the Cape landscapes and the distant mountains, the streets of the Bo Kaap, and the trees of the Cape. During the years of the First World War, she was forced to concentrate on still life subjects, and that hard period of her life is represented by some fine floral works.
Malay Quarter Painting by Nita Spilhaus
There is a particular pleasure in seeing the original oils paintings in an exhibition. There are a couple of paintings of European townscape from the interwar years when Nita and her husband returned to Germany (a disastrous move and by 1938 they were back in South Africa ). Nita Spilhaus was a skilled etcher and there are some fine representative etchings of studies of trees. Most of her paintings were fairly small (there are no really large canvases). The exhibition does particularly well in relating Nita's work to that of her contemporaries, and includes works by artists such as Moses Kottler, G Bonzaier, Hugo Naude, Allerley Glossop, Ruth Prowse, and Edward Roworth.
The Spilhaus studies sold well in the Johannesburg art market of the thirties and were marketed at the Peter Wenning Gallery. Many Johannesburg homes would have had one of her Cape scenes on their walls. They all have the characteristic of being country scenes transporting one somewhere else and certainly made the Cape mountains beckon .
This exhibition of over 50 works is the first comprehensive exhibition of Spilhaus' work. The selection we see has been drawn from the important SANLAM collection, as well as from private collections and public museums. It is almost like a retrospective in the diversity of works shown.
It is a delight to have this exhibition come to Johannesburg for 6 weeks. The exhibition is on until April 22, don't miss it!
Compiled by Kathy Munro.
Main image: Wilderness Beach by Nita Spilhaus
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