Current Exhibitions

The Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art
Reflecting on Aesthetics of African Artefacts

The Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art was collected during the 1970s and 1980s by Jonathan Lowen, a South African-born lawyer living in London. The collection was later purchased by Harry Oppenheimer and repatriated to South Africa in the mid-1980s. It was loaned to the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), where it formed part of a major exhibition titled Art and Ambiguity in 1991.
The collection was housed at JAG for many years until it moved to The Brenthurst Library in April 2023.

E-24b

D-3a

E-85b

N-21a

S-4a

S-8a

F-35

F-50a

S-8a (2)

N-31a

A-55 & 56a

N-16-17-18-19

REVD CHARLES HENRY JOBERNS
A CLERICAL JOURNEY

Revd Joberns, an Anglican clergyman, travelled from England to the Cape of Good Hope to fulfil his duties as warden of St George’s Home & as chaplain to the Bishop of Cape Town from 1874 to 1877. He painted these watercolours to document his diocesan travels around the Cape colony. The paintings depict beautiful natural landscapes, but they also demonstrate the arduous nature of these journeys in navigating the rough terrain to reach small remote towns.

ART.709/3 Bain’s Kloof

ART.709/6 Railway & train, Namaqualand

ART.709/11 Worcester

ART.709/13 Belvedere Holy Trinity Church, Knysna

ART.709/14 Plettenberg Bay

ART.709/21 Clanwilliam

Past Exhibitions

WOMEN
Resistance & Rights

AFRICAN BIRDS

THE 1922 RAND REBELLION

BOTANICAL ART

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH
African hoofed animals

ZULU WARS

ELLAPHIE WARD-HILHORST
Botanical artist

THOMAS BOWLER
Artist at the Cape

THE FOUNDING OF JOHANNESBURG

CONSTANCE STUART LARRABEE
1914–2000

MAJOR A B CREE
British Regiments in South Africa 1795–1902

Zulu Wars: Zulu, British & Boer – The first 50 years