Bernard Lewis (20 May 1870 – 5 February 1956) was a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, journalist, and author.

Life & work

He pursued his education at the University of Darmstadt and the

South African College School The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands - part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of ...

. He cultivated lifelong friendships with the most prominent artists in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, foremost among whom was D. C. Boonzaier. The great South African artists Pieter Wenning,

Moses Kottler Moses Kottler (1896–1977) was a South African painter and sculptor. He is widely regarded, along with Anton van Wouw and Lippy Lipshitz, as one of the most important South African sculptors. This triumvirate had the distinction of also havin ...

, and

Gregoire Boonzaier Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier (31 July 1909 – 22 April 2005) was a South African artist well known for his landscapes, portraits and still life paintings. He was a famous exponent of Cape Impressionism, a founder of the New Group, and a contri ...

were in his close circle of friends. He served as a trustee of the ''South African National Art Gallery'' and published many essays in the ''South African Nation'', ''Die Huisgenoot'', ''

Die Burger ''Die Burger'' (English: The Citizen) is a daily Afrikaans-language newspaper, published by Naspers. By 2008, it had a circulation of 91,665 in the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa. Along with ''Beeld'' and ''Volksblad'', it is ...

'', ''The Cape Argus'' and ''

The Cape Times The ''Cape Times'' is an English-language morning newspaper owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in Cape Town, South Africa. the newspaper had a daily readership of 261 000 and a circulation of 34 523. By the fourth quarter of ...

'', He also was a translator, creating the first translation into English of a piece of Afrikaans literature: ''Uit Oerwoud en Vlakte'' by "Sangiro" ( Andries Albertus Pienaar) which he rendered as ''The Adventures of a Lion Family''). He also wrote several children's books in

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

under the pen name "Helen Blackmore".

Sources

* Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, vol. 6, p. 603 * Scholtz, J. du P. 1979. ''Oor skilders en skrywers'', p. 74 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Bernard 1870 births 1956 deaths South African Jews South African art critics Emigrants from the German Empire Immigrants to the Cape Colony