Anon. Lions River, Caversham, Natal, South Africa

Landscapes of Natal, South Africa: 1930 Watercolours

This watercolour is one of an interesting collection of paintings that we have for sale depicting landscapes of Natal in 1930s South Africa. Located on the southeast coast of the country, the area, now named KwaZulu-Natal, was called the Province of Natal during the period 1910 to 1994. The region enjoys spectacular natural scenery, with a long shoreline beside the Indian Ocean, the huge Simangaliso (Greater St Lucia) Wetland Park, and the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, the Drakensberg.

Our British artist captures the vibrancy of the expansive African terrain, along with features such as thatched Zulu huts, thorn trees, timber forests, red-roofed cottages and colonial houses. Specific landscapes at Richmond, Winterskloof, Hilton, Howick and Fort Nottingham feature, with views on the Umkomaas and Umgeni rivers.

A complicated history lies behind these glistening, verdant landscapes. In 1843 the area was annexed as the British Colony of Natal, with a British governor and many settlers emigrating from Europe and the Cape Colony. From 1860 onward, increasing numbers of Indians were brought in by the British mainly to work in the sugar plantations on the coast. After the Zulu War of 1879 the colony acquired Zululand. When in 1910 the colony became a province, Natal contained the nonindependent black state of KwaZulu (Place of the Zulu)—the legal homeland for all of the country’s Zulus under apartheid. Only at the end of apartheid in 1994, was the KwaZulu re-incorporated into the Natal province, which was renamed KwaZulu-Natal—the only province in South Africa that has the name of its dominant ethnic group as part of its name.