Chapter 2, Part 1: Schooldays to 1896 #

ROSES from Schooldays (~1881-1886) #

Signed “PHN” lower right, oil on canvas laid down on board 12.5 x 23cm excl.frame; 27.5 x 39 x 4cm incl.frame (Strauss & Co. lot 259, 9 April 2017, lot 219, 29 September 2015). Provenance: gifted by the artist and thence by descent. An inscription in ball-point pen on the reverse:

“under this board you will find a message from Hugo Naudé to his friend Alec. This picture was painted when Naudé was still at school believed to be his first painting” (Stephan Welz & Co. lot 847, 1 June 2010: 13.5 x 23.5cm).

Eucalyptie ~1887 #

Signed “P.H. Naudé” below towards the middle, oil on canvas 60 x 75cm (Roets, p.178 App.B no.1): no image, privately owned. ⁶⁶

Aan-de-Doorns ~1887 #

Signed “P.H.Naudé” below towards the middle, oil on canvas 88 x 62cm (Roets, p.174 App.A photo I). ⁶⁷

A Figure walking in the Sand Dunes 1889 #

*Signed “Hugo Naudé” lower left, oil on board 28.5 x 39cm/11 x 15¼in. excl.frame; 46 x 56.5 x 4cm/18 x 22¼ in. incl.frame (Strauss & Co. lot 85, 19 March 2024).* ⁶⁸

Landscape, with Mother and Child 1890 #

1945 Memorial Exhibition cat.no.85 Brown Family Papers BC597 B9 University of Cape Town Libraries’ Special Collections. No image.

Portraits during overseas art studies, 1891–1895 #

Self Portrait sketch in Naudé’s 20’s #

*Many Thanks to Carmen Welz for emailing this photo to the author in October 2020.*

A photograph of himself in his 20’s was sent to siblings from London in October 1891, when he was studying at the Slade School of Fine Art:⁶⁹

This self portrait was probably done whilst studying portraiture at the Munich Academy:

Unsigned oil on woven fabric on cardboard, 37 x 29.5cm in the Hugo Naudé Studio (Roets, p.30 & p.178 App.B no.4 and HNH cat.no.23/25 – there are at least 2 Hugo Naudé House/HNH catalogues: that of the 1979 opening lists 44 items (minus other cat.nos.45-53) with page insert for nos.31-44 and 4 Bill Davis sculptures; the other is a typed visitor pamphlet from the 1980s which lists 53 items plus a further 3 items, 6 sculptures by Bill Davis and a painting by CT Villet. Both cat.nos. will be given).

Peasant Woman, Munich #

*Signed “H.Naudé” lower right, oil on canvas on plywood 41.5 x 35.5cm in “The Studio” (1979 opening of the Hugo Naudé House/HNH cat.no.22).*⁷⁰ (see Chapter 1)

German Peasant Woman #

*Signed “Naudé” lower right, red chalk drawing 27.5 x 23cm in “The Studio” (HNH cat.no.20/24).*⁷¹ (see Chapter 1)

Head of a boy #

Unsigned red chalk sketch 29 x 24cm (Roets, p.34 & p.178 App.B no.8). There’s a Portrait of a Boy at the Iziko Museum (SANG): red, white, black crayon drawing 30.6 x 25.5cm (Item ID: 74/7) which I haven’t seen yet.

Groote Schuur 1893 #

Signed and dated ‘93, pencil & watercolour over pencil with heightening 25.5 x 35.5cm/10 x 14in. (Stephan Welz & Co lot 517, 7 May 2001, Johannesburg). No image as too on artnet.

‘Coloured’ Girl 1895 #

Watercolour (1945 Memorial Exhibition cat.no.62 BC 597 B9)

Drying Fruit 2 April 1896 #

*Signed and dated “Hugo Naudé 2 IV 96” lower left, oil on canvas laid down on board, 40.5 x 52.5cm (Aspire Art lot 15, 31 October 2016 Johannesburg).* (see Chapter 1)

Bridge in the Woods July 1896 #

*Signed and dated “Hugo Naudé Jul, ‘96” lower right, pencil 16.5 x 23cm/6.5 x 9.1in. (Stephan Welz & Co. lot 193, 20 November 2006, Johannesburg).*

Paul ?Oct or Paulslot 1896 #

*Many Thanks to Carmen Welz for sending this photo to the author in October 2020.*

Study for the Portrait of my Father 1896 #

Unsigned study (oil on canvas 45 x 45cm) for **Portrait of my Father** which was signed “Hugo Naudé” lower left, oil on canvas 75 x 60cm (Roets p. 178 App.B nos.11 & 10). Naudé’s very supportive father died 6 September 1898.

Previous Next

Adriaan Jacobus Roets, Die Kuns van Pieter Hugo Naudé UNISA M.A. Thesis 1975, p.22. “Eucalyptie” was the name of a farm apparently in the vicinity of his family farm “Aan-de-Doorns”. Roets reports that this painting was seriously neglected after damage in an earth tremor, “the most striking characteristic is the lack of depth, - a characteristic seldom seen in Naudé’s later works”. Its subject a concealed building in between trees with scattered arum lilies in a foreground vlei and two females to the left. Ibid.↩︎
Op.cit.p.23. To date I haven’t been able to see Roets’ photograph I of this painting (Aanhangsel A of his thesis). Jean Welz apparently thought Aan-de-Doorns was painted after Naudé’s return from Europe in 1896. Op.cit., p.22. There are most likely several paintings of Aan-de-Doorns (see Chapter 2 Part 3’s overview). The early one apparently depicts a farm house amidst foliage with a man in the foreground at a gate and two turkeys to the left. It was also damaged during an earth tremor but has been partially restored, privately owned.(op.cit., p.23).↩︎
Dated by mutualart for sale 7 May 2025.↩︎
See Chapter 1: School & overseas art studies up to 1896, pages 5/14–8/14, footnote 20.↩︎
Retrospective Exhibition cat.no.3 calls it “Farmer’s wife, Munich” with measurements 42 x 36cm. Roets has photo V from the Dept.of Information in App.A, p.174 as unsigned “Boervrou” [Peasant Woman] oil on “bordpapier” 43 x 38cm, but I have been unable to see if this photo is the same portrait?↩︎
Roets, p.178 App.B no.7 gives measurements 29 x 25cm.↩︎