DOUGLAS TREASURE (1917 -1995)
Chapman's Peak (592 m- 1,909 ft)
South Africa
In Boats in Hot bay with Chapman's peak in the mist, watercolour, 1950
Chapman's Peak (592 m- 1,909ft ) is the name of a mountain on the western side of the Cape Peninsula, between Hout Bay and Noordhoek in Cape Town, South Africa. The western flank of the mountain falls sharply for hundreds of metres into the Atlantic Ocean, and a spectacular road, known as Chapman's Peak Drive, hugs the near-vertical face of the mountain, linking Hout Bay to Noordhoek. Chapman's Peak is named after John Chapman, the pilot of an English ship becalmed in today's Hout Bay in 1607. The skipper sent his pilot ashore to find provisions, and the name was recorded as Chapman's Chaunce.
Chapman's Peak Drive was hacked out of the face of the mountain between 1915 and 1922, and at the time was regarded as a major feat of engineering. The road was closed in the 1990s, after a rockfall caused a death and a subsequent lawsuit, and was reopened in 2005 as a toll road.
The painter
Douglas Treasure obtained his formal training at the Port Elisabeth School of Art. A commercial art career included extensive experience as a illustrator, designer, visualiser and finally art director of a major company. During this time his love of watercolour landscape painting flourished, and in 1973 he retired from advertising in order to become a full-time professional painter. Douglas Treasure is the only South African represented in best selling British Author Ron Ransom's new book, Watercolour Impressionists. His works are represented in private collections in England, America, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and Argentina.