John William George
1890
oil on canvas

This dwelling is among the earliest houses erected on an official site in the newly founded city of Johannesburg, later celebrated as the “City of Gold” . Constructed of unplastered, sun-baked brick, the house was reportedly built by a gold digger. According to the First Annual Report of the Rand Pioneers, it was destroyed by heavy rains in December 1891. Simple farm implements rest against the ringmuur (boundary wall) enclosing the werf (homestead). The discovery of the Witwatersrand main reef by George Harrison and George Walker in 1886 led to Johannesburg being proclaimed public diggings in the same year.