Hugo Naud; South African 1869-1941; Sunset, Bishopscourt ,1918
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Note : Trees and forests appear frequently in Naudé's work. Their significance in his art can be linked to his early beginnings as an artist; after studying at the Slade in London and the Munich Kunstakademie, he spent a year in the Fontainebleau Forest, painting with the Barbizon school. Naudé's wonderful mythological painting, Satyrs in the Forest (1897, Strauss & Co, Johannesburg, 8 November 2020, lot 842, Sold R136 560), was created shortly after his stay in Fontainebleau and celebrates this period of his life. Perhaps, also, given the date of the present lot, one can imagine the artist making a symbolic statement in paint regarding the ongoing war in Europe. News of the Somme offensive and South Africa's gallant defence at Dellville Wood, at terrible cost to human life would have reached him in 1915 and by the 1st of June 1918, the last ditch German counterattack was in full swing. At this point it must have felt like hope for an end to hostilities was in short supply. For Naudé the crisp orange light of the setting sun spilling through a densely packed forest of trees, may well have symbolised this fragile longing. The artist touched by the sacrifice of so many young men, went on to design and was involved in building the Garden of Remembrance in Worcester to commemorate the fallen sons of his town.
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