Indegenous Peoples, Landscapes, South Africa, Gnadendal, a Moravian Missionary Settlement in South Africa"

Plate 9

"Gnadendal, a Moravian Missionary Settlement in South Africa"

Gnadendal was founded by Georg Schmidt from Herrenhuter Bruedergemeinde, who was sent 1737 to South Africa with the intention to teach the Gospel to the Kholkhol people, who lived west of Cape Town. The missionary station of the Herrenhuter Bruedergemeinde was founded in 1738.

This lithograph shows the missionary station almost exactly 100 years after its foundation.

Toned lithograph and hand-colored, heightened with gum arabic

Clean with some spotting and minimal traces of age and use.

Image size 24.8 x 35.3 cm (ca. 9.8 x 13.9")

Incuding margin: 32.3 x 44.5 cm (ca. 12.7 x 17.5")

Hand-colored lithograph by Jonathan Needham (active second half of 19th century).

After the drawing by George French Angas (1822-1886)

Published in:

"The Kafirs Illustrated in a Series of Drawings - The Amazulu, The Amaponda, ad Amakosa Trbes also Portraits of the Hottentot, Malay, Fingo, and other Races Inhabiting Southern Africa"

By George French Angas. London, 1849

Finely hand-colored general view of Cape Town, South Africa.

Very good condition.

George French Angas (1822-1886)

George French Angas was an explorer, born in England in 1822. His family founded a new colony in South Australia, while Angas was sent to business school in London. But he had a remarkable talent in drawing and painting. He rather turned to the arts and studied anatomical drawing and natural history. He was fascinated with the relatively young method of printing: Lithography, and achieved mastery in this field. Before he was twenty years of age he traveled in Europe and published, in 1842, his first book "Rambles in Malta and Sicily". The success of this book assured him of being on the right path. He then went to Australia to join his family and began, as one of the first artists, to paint the South of this hitherto almost unknown continent. Angas kept traveling and published three extremely important books:

"South Australia illustrated" - "The New Zealanders illustrated" and "The Kafirs illustrated in a series of drawings taken among the Amazulu, Amaponda and Amakosa tribes", a very important book with large plates showing warriors and other individuals and tribal groups of people and their habits, villages, landscapes, including views of Cape Town and Durban (small as it was then). The book had a small edition and has to be considered rare!