Pondo Woman

Artist Neville Lewis (Cape Town, South Africa, 1895 - 1972)

Mediumoil on board

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 40.7 cm, Width: 30.1 cm
Frame: Height: 53.5 cm, Width: 43.6 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1938 with income from the Macdonald Bequest.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG002520

Keywords

About MeThis artwork refers to a woman who presumably is from the Pondo region, or amaPondo region on the South East coast of South Africa whose people speak Xhosa. Again, we don’t know much without further research, on this woman and her life’s story. We also don’t know about the context in which this portrait was undertaken. Did Neville Lewis pay this woman for her time sitting for this portrait in a studio? Did he sketch her to later return to paint? We simply don’t know.

We do know a portrait by Neville Lewis was destroyed during a demonstration as part of the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa.
Rhodes Must Fall was a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education across South Africa. On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.
Rhodes Must Fall captured national headlines throughout 2015 and sharply divided public opinion in South Africa. It also inspired the emergence of allied student movements at other universities, both within South Africa and elsewhere in the world. This movement was also seen at Oxford University, and also in Bristol, with the protest and removal of the Colston statue.

Exhibitions

Re-framing the Collection