Charles Ernest Peers - South African Artist, Drawings, Paintings 1875 - 1944
Charles Ernest Peers was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland 1875 - 1944
Art Education
Briefly at Liverpool School of Art; also, possibly, at Slade School, London.
Short Artist Biography
Youth spent in Liverpool; Charles Peers fascinated by local shipping activity; initially intended to pursue a naval career; later worked as a draughtsman for a marine architect, but could not afford to studyprofessionally.
1904: Charles Peers came out to South Africa, mainly for health reasons; settled in Cape Town where his brother was a shipping agent.
1905: Charles Peers elected member of South African Society of Artists
1924: Charles Peers winner of Cape Times poster competition.
1926: member of South African Institute.
1930: Charles Peers published two folios of lithographic drawings - `The Cape' and `Natal'. Member of the Owl Club, Cape Town; President in 1934.
1935: Chairman of the K Club, Cape Town.
1938: invited by New Group to participate in their first exhibition, subsequently elected Chairman of the Group. Employed by various printing firms as a chromo-lithographer and designer. During his early career Charles Peers painted exclusively in watercolour, but from c1922 began to work in oil as well. Illustrated `The Seven Wonders of Southern Africa' by Hedley ChIIvers
Art Exhibitions
1923: one-man art exhibition oil paintings, watercolours and pastels, Lezard's Galleries, Johannesburg. 1927: Inaugural Exhib, South African Institute, Durban.
1938: first New Group Exhibition.
1948: Overseas Art Exhibition of South African Art
1953: Rhodes Centenary Exhibition, Bulawayo.
1957: `Founders of Painting at the Cape since 1857', South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
1975: Prestige Exhibition, South African National Gallery.
Public Art Collections
South African National Gallery; William Humphreys Gallery, Kimberly; Durban Art Gallery; Pretoria Art
Museum
Source
Berman, E. 1994. Art & Artists of South Africa . Southern Book Publishers.
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