The Story of the Johannesburg Station Panels by JH Pierneef

Artist JH Pierneef’s (1886-1957) most acclaimed public commission was completed between 1929 and 1932. The Johannesburg Station Panels have been characterised as the epitome of the South African landscape genre.

As a well-travelled artist exploring the depths and culture of his home country as early as 1903, the work of JH Pierneef depicts a combination of four main subjects or themes – Clouds, Mountains, Trees and Architecture. The artist explores both options: individual isolated studies or a combination of chosen themes. Both approaches result in intriguing, monumental scenes that captivate the viewer’s gaze.

With the public unveiling of the panels at the Station in 1932, the series of paintings was admired well above the viewers’ eye level, at a height of 4.2 meters. Various approaches to hanging them on public displays over the last 90 years, including the Johannesburg Station concourse, its Blue Room Gallery, selectively between Johannesburg Art Gallery and Pretoria Art Museum, the Jan Rupert Art Centre in Graaff-Reinet and here at the Rupert Museum, have had viewers engage with these iconic works on and through different horizons.

The rehang of the Johannesburg Station Panels, now open for viewing, brings various opinions and theories to the fore. The viewer is placed in the position of viewing and exploring from far or below each scene. It offers the opportunity to be transported to the ‘initial’ display as close as possible but remain within the limits of the exhibition space. This is an attempt to understand or debate whether there was indeed a method to Pierneef’s approach and execution of these specific compositions.

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Since 2002, the complete set of thirty-two panels – twenty-eight landscape and four tree scenes – has been on long-term loan from the TRANSNET Foundation to the Rupert Art Foundation.