G.R. PETEREIT (LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY)

“Groote Schuur”

 

Signed and dated 1910 lower right

​

Oil on canvas, 42 x 69.8 cm

​

Note:

 

A portrait of J.J. Wasserfall by Petereit, signed and dated 1885, is known as is a painting depicting Guy Fawkes in Cape Town Malay Quarter and one depicting British troops on Rondebosch Common. About the artist himself, nothing appears to be known.
 

Already in 1657 De Schuur was build by Jan van Riebeeck, the first Governor of the Cape. After the bankruptcy of the VOC De Schuur passed through many hands and had many changes before it was bought by Ceci Rhodes in 1893. Cecil Rhodes replaced the name The Grange by Groote Schuur and restored it to it’s earlier Cape Dutch character with “Dutch” gables and furnished it with Cape Dutch furniture. After his death, Cecil Rhodes bequeathed Groote Schuur, as the residence of the prime minister, to the Union of South Africa. Up untill president De Klerk, it functioned as such.
However in 1910, when this painting was made, there was no Union of South Africa yet and the estate, according to the will, was open to the public as it is once more today as a museum.