The Swartberg (2,325m-7,628 ft)
South Africa (Western Cape)
In Meiringspoort, oil on canvas, 1935, Private collection
The mountains and pass
The Swartberg mountains (2,325m-7,628 ft), meaning black mountain in Afrikaans, are a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is composed of two main mountain chains running roughly east–west along the northern edge of the semi-arid Little Karoo. To the north of the range lies the other large semi-arid area in South Africa, the Great Karoo. Most of the Swartberg Mountains are above 2000 m high, making them the tallest mountains in the Western Cape. It is also one of the longest, spanning some 230 km from south of Laingsburg in the west to between Willowmore and Uniondale in the east. Geologically, these mountains are part of the Cape Fold Belt.
Meiringspoort (750m-2,460 ft) is a pass trough the Swartberg range of mountains, Until the first pass was cut, these mountains were virtually insurmountable, The pass was cut in 1858 and the route completed in only 223 working days, comprising one of the era's most extraordinary feats of engineering. It was also a huge economic step for the interior of the Cape Colony. For example, by 1870, an eighth of the country's wool exports passed through the Meiringspoort.
The Meiringspoort provides paved road transit through the Swartberg range, using the route largely carved by a river. The poort connects the town of De Rust in the south, with the town of Klaarstroom in the north. It also offers a spectacular drive through incredible rock formations, (as depicted in the painting above) and is the setting for an annual half marathon that ends in the town of De Rust. Modern additions mean several different passes now cut different routes through the range.
The artist
Martinus Johannes "Tinus" de Jongh was one of South Africa's most popular painters.
Self-taught, he began his career as a decorator in the Netherlands where he was born, and then pursued painting full-time. He achieved some note when the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam purchased one of his early pictures. He arrived in South Africa in 1921, practicing a sober style within the Dutch tradition, typified there by Still Life with Birds and Hare. The light and landscape of South Africa soon caused him to abandon his muted palette in favour of more saturated colours (as seen above). His formulaic approach to painting Cape landscapes with gabled farmhouses created such a demand that he abandoned his considered brushwork in favour of a broader palette knife technique. His etchings sold in the hundreds through his dealer Louis Woolf.
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
