A Cape Cottage in a Landscape with Trees

This painting was painted by Nita Spilhaus.  It caught my eye because it is such a familiar image.  If you drive around anywhere in our country, there are always cottages like this next to the road, often more run down looking than this one.  I always wonder about the cottages though, who built it there, why there, who lived there, someone must have grown up there?  So many stories lost.  I think she captured a very familiar scene beautifully, with nature dominating the image and the huge trees and clouds almost dwarfing the cottage.  

“Although there often seems to be a hint of romanticism in Nita Spilhaus’ work, the overwhelming sense of honesty and respect for the character of her subject prevents her painting from being sentimental”.  I tend to agree with this statement.

Nita Spilhaus was born in Portugal to German parents and sadly lost both her parents at a young age.  Her grandfather looked after her until he died in 1908, when she joined other relatives in Cape Town, South Africa.  She studied art from a young age and when she arrived in SA immediately joined the South African Society of Arts.  She loved the South African landscape and particularly enjoyed painting outdoors.  During the war years she was housebound though, because she spoke German.  During this time she started painting still life arrangements and flowers.  She had a particular affinity for trees, and it features in many of her paintings, like this one.  

Our 40 x 50cm version of her beautiful painting is fairly challenging and has 24 colours.  Each box contains a stretched, printed and numbered canvas, paint, brushes and a page detailing the numbers for an extra reference.

Sources

http://www.johansborman.co.za/artist-biographies/spilhaus-nita/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nita_Spilhaus

http://nitaspilhaus.com/