When you ask people about South Africa’s most prominent artists, the name J.H. Pierneef, or just Pierneef, would probably pop up in the conversation. Hendrik Pierneef, also sometimes called Jacob, Pier or Henk, is viewed worldwide as the first big South African painter.

This artist is especially known for the unique style with which he painted the South African landscape. This style, which is seen as a modernistic and geometric style, transformed the South African art world of the twentieth century. Although his paintings were not received well initially, it is seen as South Africa’s most sought-after works of art today.

Here are ten fast facts about this masterful artist:

1. His full name is Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef.
2. He was born in Pretoria on 13 August 1886 and passed away on 4 October 1957.
3. Most of the landscapes that Pierneef painted depicts the South African Highveld.
4. In 1902 Pierneef hosted his first public exhibition in cooperation with Hugo Naudé and his godfather, Anton van Wouw. He only hosted his first solo exhibition in 1913.
5. Pierneef had diverse occupations until he finally decided to become a full-time artist. As an arts student he worked in a tobacco shop. From 1912 he worked at the State Library before he was appointed as an art lecturer in 1918. By 1923, however, he started working as a full-time artist.
6. Pierneef sold his first painting – an oil painting – in 1910.
7. Pierneef was commissioned in 1929 to paint 32 panels for the Johannesburg Station. He finished this project in 1932.
8. In 1933 and 1934 Pierneef painted seven murals for the South Africa House in London.
9. To this day Pierneef is still seen as one of the biggest South African masters.
10. Pierneef’s painting Farm Jonkershoek with twin peaks beyond, Stellenbosch was sold at an art auction in June 2017 for close to R20,5 million. At that stage it was the second highest amount that a South African painting ever reached on an auction. (Irma Stern’s Arab Priest was listed on a 2018 ranking as the most expensive South African painting. It was sold in London in 2015 for just over R52,3 million.)