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The Everard Group is a family of renowned South African Artists, spanning four generations over a period of more than 100 years, in a remote corner of the African highveld in the early 1900's, and continues to this day. The works of the Everards hang in all major South African National Art Galleries including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein and Kimberley, as well as collections abroad including Africa House in London. The group originally consisted of 4 members, beginning with Bertha Everard, her sister Edith King and her two daughters Ruth and Rosamund. It continued to grow to the next immediate generation with Ruth's daughter Leonora Everard haden, and Leonora's daughter Nichola Leigh. Leonora along with her daughter continue to produce work to the present day. Bertha and Edith arrived in South Africa, from England, at the turn of the last century, where they settled on the farm called Bonnefoi, which lies on the escarpment in Mpumalanga, where the highveld drops into steep valleys and gorges to the lowveld. This inspired their great interest and love of the African Landscape which continues to influence the artists today
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A Brief History Edith and Bertha King were born in South Africa during the Anglo/Zulu wars, the daughters of an impetuous and hot-headed captain in the British army; they were raised by their mother and educated in England. At the turn of the century, they returned to South Africa as schoolteachers. By 1905, Bertha had married Charles Everard, a well-respected owner of a lively and busy trading store on the transport wagon route to Lydenberg in the old Transvaal province. On the farm Bonnefoi in the remote, bleak and vast expanses of the Eastern Highveld escarpment overlooking the Komati valley, Bertha supervised the design and construction of a large, stately and dignified home. The baronial sized rooms displayed a strong influence of the British Arts and Crafts movement and were filled with furniture inspired by William Morris design. Here she raised her three children Ruth, Rosamund and Sebastian Everard. In later years the décor of the home would stretch to encompass the varied interests and tastes of the talented family and an exotic amalgamation of hunting trophies, African artefacts and Rosamund’s collection of North African and Egyptian treasures predominated. Daily life on a South African farm in the early years of the twentieth century was very different to life in England and presented many difficulties to the educated, cultured and artistic Bertha. The rural community around her, African farm workers and local Boer farmers together with their families, did not share her European background and education, often causing her to feel culturally restricted and alienated. Despite her frustration and regular bouts of depression, Bertha's pioneering spirit enabled her to educate her children herself, supervise the working of the farmlands (a difficult task for a woman at the time), design and oversee the building of schools and churches for the African farm workers and their families - including a church for the local Anglican congregation in Carolina- and to create an artistic legacy as a pioneer of South African Modernism in painting.
What was extraordinary about the Everard Group artists was their ability to produce powerful, innovative work on an isolated farm, far removed from the hub of urban centres. Despite the negative criticism they received from a conservative public, unwilling to accept modern styles, the Everard artists continued to work with courage and conviction. Their pioneering work exists as a legacy to the development of modern art in South Africa.
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Photographs from the Family Albums
Ruth and Edith swimming in the Komati River circa 1910.
At home at Bonnefoi farm in the Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga). Saddling up a donkey for a young Rosamund, circa 1910.
Rosamund receiving a trophy for her prize winning Ayershire cattle, with Charles looking on.
The Hall was the heart of Bonnefoi where the family gathered and entertained. It was one of the last rooms to remain completely in tact long after Bonnefoi ceased to be lived in. It was only after Ruth's death in 1992 that the furniture and paintings were removed.
Camping at Lekkerdraai with uncle Sturt who later built the rondavels at Lekkerdraai as a winter retreat for the family. It was during this time that Bertha did many of her large and impressive african landscapes.
Sitting on the banks of the Komati.
Ruth, Rosamund and Sebastian outside a beehive hut at Lekkerdraai.
Rosamund's flying trip to North Africa with her friend Miss Pollock in 1937. It was this trip, which extended to the Middle East, that inspired Rosamund to paint the landcape titled 'Petra'.
Rosamund standing next to her Puss Moth aeroplane which she bought with her brother Sebastian. |
