Anton van Wouw en vroee Johannesburg

Abstract

This essay attempts to reconstruct the ten missing years in the life of the well-known South African sculptor, Anton van Wouw, from the end of the Anglo-Boer War to the end of 1910 when he received the commission to make the Women's Memorial in Bloemfontein. These years were characterized by his co-operation with the English architect, Frank Emley, and through him with the mining magnates of early Johannesburg, especially with Lionel and Florence Phillips, who became his patrons and promoted his art in South Africa and overseas. In all the biographies on this artist, which were mainly written by Afrikaner sympathizers, these years were omitted because it would have tarnished Van Wouw's image as the foremost sculptor of Afrikaner life if his supporters had known that he had collaborated with what they considered to be the "enemy" shortly after the Anglo-Boer War. This collaboration was, however, very lucrative and helped him not only to establish himself as an architectural sculptor of note, but also furnished him with the means to devote four years of his life entirely to his art.