De Jongh was one of South Africa's most popular painters. Self-taught, he began his career as a decorator in Holland 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 by still life with birds and hare. The light and landscape of South Africa soon caused him to abandon his muted palette in favor of more saturated colors. His formulaic approach to painting Cape landscapes with gabled farmhouses created such a demand that he abandoned his considered brushwork in favor of a broader palette knife technique. His etchings sold in the hundreds through his dealer, Louis Woolf. |
In 1934, controversy arose from allegations that Woolf had forged the artist's signature on thousands of them. De Jongh's sentimental variations of the Cape landscape attracted many admirers, much to the dismay of some. In 1929, W.H. Hill, a Durban art critic, wrote: "Mr. de Jongh wears a Van Dyke beard, he affects a black velvet jacket and brown trousers, and he lives at 'Rembrandt House'. His four pictures are what one would expect from a gentleman who wears a Van Dyke beard and commits other crimes enumerated. He sees South Africa through a beautiful haze of crushed strawberry jam and some of the clots of yellow on his canvas must be at least a quarter of an inch thick." |
