Artist Biography

Tinus de Jongh

1885 – 1942

Martinus Johannes "Tinus" de Jongh (31 January 1885 in Amsterdam – 17 July 1942 in Bloemfontein) was one of South Africa's most popular painters. Self-taught, he began his career as a decorator in the Netherlands, and then pursued painting full-time. He achieved some note when the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam purchased one of his early pictures. His story is in many respects the story of a double artistic life: a formation in the sober, precise traditions of Dutch painting, followed by a radical transformation under the overwhelming pressure of African light and landscape. The work of his South African years — above all his mountain landscapes and Cape farmhouse scenes — constitutes one of the most beloved bodies of landscape painting in the history of South African art.