NITA SPILHAUS (1878-1967) and her artist friends in the Cape during the early twentieth century
Nita Spilhaus
TITLE: NITA SPILHAUS
AUTHOR: Peter Elliott
PUBLISHER: Peter Elliott
ISBN: 978-0-620-66389-2
Reviewer: Dr Dawn Gould
It was an adroit move on the part of the author to place NITA SPILHAUS in the centre of other fine artists –Pieter Wenning, Edward Roworth, Ruth Prowse, Constance Penstone etc. Firstly the spotlight is on this specific artist and secondly it laid open, at that time, the South African attitude to artists, a lack of interest and a certain prejudice to the females among them. Another important aspect is that the reader gains knowledge of others in this field and insight into the society and the economy of a particular period of South African history.
Pauline Augusta Wihelmina was born of a Portuguese mother Virginia Coelho and a German father, Karl Spilhaus. Karl Spilhaus had moved to Lisbon, Portugal to set up a business and it was where he met his future wife. Their daughter, Pauline Augusta, was given the name Pequenita “a slip of a girl” by a nurse carer.
As her story line unfolds the reader learns of her art studies over a period of ten years in Germany, of the bias in some quarters there, when only men could study Fine Art although some private art schools did accept female students. An initial impression of the future artist is one of a somewhat shadowy figure, a young person trying to find a future path for herself. However, as time passed she is depicted as a lively and slightly mischievous young woman, very social who mixed happily with her fellow students. As the months and years went by she became the person around whom many others gathered.
At the end of 1897 Nita visited her uncle Wilhelm in Cape Town. In 1908 she moved, on a more permanent basis, to Cape Town once more living with her relative and his family. In 1914 she decided to live on her own in the city where she could mix with her fellow artists and those individuals interested in fine art.
Once one has read this book with its brightly attractive cover, one is struck by the research that was undertaken to bring it to the point of publication. It is a carefully produced history of a talented artist. There are details of art exhibitions, impressive colour plates, precise and detailed end notes, a bibliography and an index. All of these were much appreciated by this reviewer.