Anton van Wouw

Anton van Wouw was born in Driebergen, Holland in 1862, and moved to Pretoria at the age of 28. Despite having taken classes in drawing and modelling at the Rotterdam Academy, it was some time before van Wouw gained commissions in South Africa, a country in which there were few opportunities for sculptors at the time. He received his first commission from the industrialist Sammy Marks (1844-1920) in 1899: a monumental sculpture of Paul Kruger (1825-1904), the President of the South African Republic, on Church Square.

Some of van Wouw's most celebrated artworks are his sensitive depictions of South-African sitters. Unlike many of his contemporaries, van Wouw worked in a realistic manner and did not portray his models through a colonial lens. His close attention to detail, and thorough understanding of anatomy, resulted in portraits with striking realism and vibrant expression.

By 1906 van Wouw had relocated to the newly established city of Johannesburg which was undergoing huge economic and social transformation due to the discovery of vast gold deposits along the Witwatersrand. The burgeoning mining industry relied heavily on cheap migrant labour from neighbouring territories and Van Wouw was one of the only artists of the day to examine the plight of these urbanised migrant labourers and the terrible working and living conditions they endured. The present model The Accused, or sometimes alternatively titled The Basuto Witness, is an important example in this œuvre, sensitively depicting a mineworker standing as witness during a trial. Thus van Wouw’s sculptures of mine workers were not a gallery of ethnographic studies, as they are so often misinterpreted, but rather a sensitive documentation of the migrant experience.

While van Wouw modelled his sculptures in plaster from life models in South Africa, the casting process took place in Italy. He predominantly worked with two Roman foundries, the Massa foundry and G. Nisini.

The present cast is a particularly fine example and features a warm brown patina, finely chased surface, and well defined detail throughout.

RELATED LITERATURE

M. J. Cohen, Anton Van Wouw, Sculptor Of South African Life, Johannesburg, 1938, pp. 35-36