When the town council of his town wanted to establish a monument in honour of the sons of the town who died in World War I, ‘Artist’ was approached to plan and lay out the Garden of Remembrance at Church Square. He gave a lot of time and attention to this and we watched the progress of the Garden with interest. After the ground was measured out and worked, and a neat frame of Paarl granite erected, plants were brought in from elsewhere. Most of them Pieter fetched from the veld himself and transplanted at suitable times. It was a familiar sight to see him there in the garden, bent over or squatting, as he planted the indigenous plants. The vygies were especially striking when they ignited the plot edges and continued to sparkle almost until sunset.
Then the town councillors decided to beautify Church Square still further seeing that the memory garden was such an attractive display. They would plant trees around the Square and thereby protect it. With great joy and enthusiasm Pieter sketched a plan with trees, mostly indigenous, which would grow successfully and would adorn the town for many decades to come:
This plan born from enthusiasm, knowledge and good taste was presented to Council. There was debate over the plan, but, after much to-and fro-ing and calculations, in the end bluegums were voted as more profitable and cheaper to acquire. I still remember Pieter’s indignation as he snorted through his moustache: ‘Dreadful, dreadful’, his favourite words when very upset about something morally deficient. In this case it was not so much about that his plan was rejected but rather over the impolite civil narrow-mindedness which was revealed.
In addition to his house being donated posthumously to the town, numerous paintings of his were also given to the town council. That these paintings were only hung in a suitable place 35 years after his death, perhaps reveals something of the pettiness of the past and a lack of acknowledgement of a gifted son of the town and district who spent most of his life amongst the people of his town.
How else do I remember Pieter and Julie after so many years? Fleeting impressions include his moustache, his broad strong hands, the Harris Tweed jackets, the nice veldskoene for the mountain, the Liberty silk ties which Julie made so neatly for him. And about Julie I remember her soft fingers and gentle voice, her smooth neat long skirts with blouses of fine cotton or silk.
I think too about the books which she read to me and gave me. When in Primary School we still had to struggle with de- and het- words and had to recite verses such as “Het Zwalustnest” and “Jantjie zagt de Pruimen hangen” and read the Dutch Bible because our own translation was not yet available, Julie gave me my first English Bible, a de luxe edition with a soft leather cover and clear instructions. Later I also received her ‘Stories of Jesus’ which Pieter illustrated with sketches.
When the weather was bleak during visits to their house, and when I still could not read fluently, Julie would read me stories in her little reading room above the outside staircase just next door to the studio. There I became acquainted with Kingsley’s Waterbabies, Anderson’s Ugly Duckling and The Emperor’s Clothes, Perrault’s Cinderella who wore glass shoes to the ball, Maeterlinck’s Bluebird and similar stories.
In 1917 Naudé with painting illustration, was included in Edward Roworth’s (1880-1964) essay ‘Landscape Art in South Africa’ in the international Studio publication “Art of the British Empire Overseas”, i.e. “the first to have been published in book-form”. In 1924 South Africa was represented by 65 paintings at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, England – Naudé and JEA Volschenk were also there.49
Naudé’s brother Wouter Hugo died in 1928 when his youngest son “Wollie” was 10 years old. The Artist became like a surrogate father to him and helped finance his studies later in 1938 (see letters from Aunt Julie below).
In 1935 Naudé received one of the highest scout awards for his 25 years’ work as Scoutmaster in Worcester, namely, the Scout Medal of Merit, the Silver Wolf badge.50
He designed rockeries for the Empire Exhibition Johannesburg in 1936 and exhibited some of his oil paintings (highest price R84).
In 1937 Naudé was commissioned by the Worcester Chamber of Commerce to paint the Hex River Valley as a gift to SA House, London:
- Esmé Berman, Art and Artists of South Africa. An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary and Historical Survey of Painters & Graphic Artists since 1875 (A.A. Balkema: Cape Town, 1970), pp. 165, 167, 204 & 343.↩︎
- His nephew and Estate executor, architect David Francois Hugo Naudé, suggested in a letter to the heirs, dated 7 July 1941 that “the First Worcester Troop of Boy Scouts should be given the Silver Wolf badge presented to Oom Pieter for scouting services, also a large photographic portrait of him for their hall”. Point “V.” of this letter is reproduced in forthcoming Appendix A.↩︎