Guerre

1899 · 182470 — South Africa: 1899-1902. A unique snapshot of Boer War Cape Town A highly unusual accomplished series of pen-and-ink and watercolour sketches - landscapes and social and military subjects - covering many aspects of life both high and low in Cape Town during the conflict including depictions of indigenous people Malays and Boers. These attractive well-finished sketches in an unusual and flamboyant style seem professional and illustrative rather than "fine art" and captioned in a decorative and very well-formed hand. The artist may well have been a working illustrator: his captions are certainly in the manner used by such periodicals as the Black & White and The Graphic and the style is that employed for lightly "humoresque" reportage. However we have been unable to trace any published versions and of course he may have been simply an observant talented well-placed amateur. The captioning reveals him to be probably British but possibly American - he makes references to the British soldier as "Tommy" and refers to "Australian and Canadian" troops. The album opens with a bird's eye view of Cape Town from Leeuwen Street and is followed by three military subjects. "Poor Tommy passes in his check" shows a British soldier struck in the head by a bullet as fellow infantrymen take cover behind rocks. "Passed in his check" was a slang expression for dying used mainly in America where there was considerable sympathy for the Boer cause and the unsentimental rendering of a Tommy's death may indicate that the artist is indeed American. Similarly the following picture "An intercepted despatch" shows a mounted courier being picked off by a Boer marksman. This is followed by "Cronje's barkers at Green Point - captured at Paardeberg" with a British sentry guarding artillery and a Maxim gun taken at that hard-fought battle 18-27 February 1900. The camp at Green Point Common was established for British troops before being used to house Boer prisoners of war. Of the dozen appealing watercolours five are landscapes the remainder portraits except for "On the Terrace Dix's" which shows a well-to-do trio seated at a table at Dix's Café the place to be seen in fin de siècle Cape Town it's "leading café during the South African War. When the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York later King George V and Queen Mary visited Cape Town the Mayor's banquet was held at Dix's" Green. Particularly striking is the very nicely rendered full-length portrait of a young black woman entitled "The girl aint coloured she was born that way". This is much more of a likeness than a "type" and is echoed to some extent in the preceding image "Tommy's substitute for Maria" which shows a British soldier conversing with two well-dressed black women. These may well be "sly girls" a term for women who supplemented their income with occasional sex work. At home and among the higher echelons of the Army there was deep concern about the loose morals of troops in South Africa and "one problem was considered to be their preference for black prostitutes" Kuitenbrouwer p. 203. The artist's rendering of horses is particularly adept as illustrated by "Every man his own horse breaker - Buckjumbers sic from Argentina" a buckjumper is a horse that habitually bucks; many British cavalry mounts were imported from Argentina during the war and an untitled sketch showing a Yeomanry trooper on a prancing mount. Around nine subjects are military including Boer prisoners being escorted under guard at Green Point and soldiers carousing in a mule cart entitled "When the Canadians and Australians went home". Local scenes include several images of refugees from the fighting a nicely rendered portrait of a smartly dressed Indian trader drunks on Bree Street and "doppers" members of the Reformed Churches in South Africa. "Ricksha" is a spirited sketch showing a young Zulu rickshaw-puller fancifully dressed and adorned with horns and wings - an outfit intended to attract custom and often seen in tourist album photographs into the 20th century - pulling a fashionably dressed lady. The artist's eye for costume is also notable even when a little exaggerated for effect giving the images the hallmark of verisimilitude. The album closes on a humorous note with "Our friends the enemy: the mosquito the bug and the nimble flea the African horrors" showing a trio of anthropomorphized insects. Landscape octavo 145 x 245 mm. With 39 original pen-and-ink drawings and 12 watercolours of scenes and people. Contemporary dark brown hard-grain morocco gilt lettered "Sketch Book" on front cover and initialled "A.H." or "F.H." within border of gilt paired fillets gilt milled edge roll gold-veined Double Marble pattern endpapers. Custom brown quarter morocco solander box. Some abrasions to covers a few pale stains to back cover inner hinges cracked but firm expert repairs to edges of first 8 leaves general toning and finger soiling. Overall in very good condition. Lawrence Green Tavern of the Seas 1947; Vincent Kuitenbrouwer War of Words: Dutch Pro-Boer Propaganda and the South African War 1899-1902 2010. unknown