After De Jongh is a visually rich solo exhibition of paintings and works in mixed media by artist Hentie van der Merwe.

In this exhibition, he turns his attention to the landscapes of popular Dutch South African artist Tinus de Jongh (1885 - 1942) which, as he observes, are “emblematic of that whole genre of kitschy landscape painting that I grew up with, and to which generations of Afrikaners are so attached.”

Growing up in Namibia is also a point of reflection, as he notes, “landscape as a theme has always been on my ‘bucket list’ to explore, especially given my background growing up in the mountains of Namibia as the son of land-owning parents. I have, over the years, sporadically worked with this theme, but never as consistently and explicitly as in this After De Jongh. In my renditions of De Jongh’s landscapes I struggle with and confront myself in relation to such themes as mastering the landscape, land ownership, occupation, working the land, patrimony, disowning and deprivation, destruction, burn, and expropriation. In short, the landscape as terrain of my heritage and emotions related to the story of my origins. Apart from these ideas, De Jongh’s works are merely a point of departure for me to explore the potential of oil paint to evoke, explore and communicate.” 

Van der Merwe’s approach emphasises the nature of painting as a practice informed by drawing, and as a tool for research and exploration. In relation to this body of work, he refers to theorist W.J.T. Mitchell’s reference to landscape painting as a “verb”, meaning that this genre of representational painting is complicit in the production of specific social identities by arranging space in particular ways. Artistic influence is also of note here, as De Jongh’s landscapes are rendered in a style borrowed from the Barbizon school, a group of painters active in Fontainebleau, France from 1830 – 1870, who advocated for the advancement of Realism in art in an age of Romanticism.

Tinus de Jongh was born in Amsterdam in 1885 and relocated to South Africa in 1921.