Africa to Italy: 1912 to 1913

Naudé became engaged to Miss Julie Brown in 1912.

A letter from General Jan Christiaan Smuts congratulated Naudé on his engagement to Miss Julie Brown in 1912
The Treasury
Pretoria
28 Sept 1912

My dear Hugo

My heartiest congratulations on your engagement, in which my wife joins me. May you be happy & successful in this great venture. The Browns are of the salt of the earth.

I have told the Agric.Dept about your ?brother

Ever yrs

Signed JC Smuts

Apparently A Farm in Spring, dated 1908, belonged to General Smuts:

A Farm in Spring, oil on canvas 42 x 63cm excl. frame, signed “Hugo Naudé ’08” lower right (Strauss & Co. lot 208, 30 June 2014, Illovo, South Africa). There is another very similar painting - See Chapter 2’s overview of the artist’s work, forthcoming.

The Cape Times correspondent reported that General Smuts was deeply grieved by Naudé’s death when speaking at Worcester on Saturday 5 April 1941 because he had been a dear friend of his wife and himself:

He was an ornament to Worcester and to the whole of South Africa…much of his finest work was painted on my farm.37

Naudé returned to Europe in 1913 for a year’s working holiday. He escorted his sister’s son Philip du Toit, and N.C. “Cope” Krone on their “Grand Tour of Europe”. “Cope”, who hailed from one of the oldest family wine estates in the Tulbagh Valley since 1710:

Twee Jonge Gezellen (1915), oil on board, 42 x 36cm, signed “Hugo Naudé” lower right. It was reproduced in the 1988 KWV calendar. In Krone art collection until they had to sell (telephonic comm. with Anton Welz, early 2019). Roets interviewed “Cope” Krone 21 July 1973 in Worcester for his M.A. Thesis. Gerhard Krone was the artist’s godson to whom he gave A View of the Hex River.

went to study singing in London and sponsored Naudé and du Toit’s trip. Their travels began in Cape Town, visiting places along the east coast of Africa, such as Beira (Mozambique), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania):

Dar-es-Salaam Harbour, signed “Hugo Naudé” lower right, oil on canvas 35 x 55.5cm (sale 11 November 2002).
Old Harbour Zanzibar, signed “H.Naudé” lower right, oil on canvas 40 x 54.5cm (Strauss & Co. lot 560, 16 March 2015).

They were delayed in Jerusalem for more than 12 days when Naudé became very ill with malaria and had to be hospitalized.

Jaffa, signed “Naudé” lower right, oil on board 29 x 39.5cm, Krone collection (Strauss & Co. lot 480, 6 February 2012, Cape Town). N.C. Krone mentions the artist’s hospitalization in his posthumous “re: HUGO NAUDE” (Brown Family Papers BC 597 A66, at UCT Libraries’ Special Collections).

The “Rebecca or Jerusalem Jar” was bought during this visit to Jerusalem:

“Rebecca or Jerusalem Jar”, bequeathed by the artist to his sister-in-law, Mrs Rachel Dick, whose daughter Mrs Janet McGregor of Plettenberg Bay, donated it to the Hugo Naudé House, delivering it personally on 1 January 1983.

They also visited Palestine and Italy:

Amalfi Coast, signed “H.Naudé” lower right, inscribed with title and circa 1912 on reverse label, oil on board 27 x 21.5cm excl. frame (Strauss & Co. lot 680, 21 October 2013). There’s a very similar painting – see Chapter 2’s overview, forthcoming.
A View from St Marks Square from the Grand Canal, Venice, signed “Hugo Naudé” lower right, oil on board 24.5 x 34.5cm (Bonhams lot 304, 26 October 2011, London).

Apparently their tour guide was a little too enthusiastic:

One can imagine with what enthusiasm these young men were taken around the various art galleries. I remember him telling me in shocked tones how in Florence they had refused to cross the threshold to view Michaelangelo’s original David!38

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  1. Obituary in Cape Times ?7 April 1941 written by Cape Times Correspondent on Sunday 6 April 1941 in Worcester. See forthcoming Appendix A for photo of undated Cape Times cutting.↩︎
  2. “Wollie’s” talk at the SA National Gallery on 25 February 1970 for the centenary Retrospective Exhibition in Cape Town.↩︎