Walter Edward Westbrook (3 August 1921 – 15 January 2015) was a South African artist who lived latterly in Kent, England. He was well known particularly for his

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

landscapes inspired by the arid plains of the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

and Namibia, and later by the countryside of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

. Westbrook was born in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

in 1921 and lived in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

for several decades before emigrating to England in the late 1990s. He died in Kent in 2015, aged 93.

Early years and wartime art

Westbrook began to paint at a young age and studied art under

Walter Battiss Walter Whall Battiss (6 January 1906 – 20 August 1982) was a South African artist, also known as the creator of the "Fook Island" concept. Early life Battiss was born into an English Methodist family in the Karoo town of Somerset Eas ...

in Pretoria. Not recognised officially as war artist, Westbrook nevertheless practised as a painter throughout his war years in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, and in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

where he was taken under the wing of Italian artist, Francisco Caprioli. Wartime works of his are exhibited at the

South African National Museum of Military History The South African National War Museum in Johannesburg was officially opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947 to preserve the history of South Africa's involvement in the Second World War. In 1975, the museum was renamed the South Af ...

. In the post-war period, Westbrook held a one man show in Pretoria in 1947.

Kimberley

It was when living and working in

that he began to engage with the arid landscapes of the

, the

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...

and Namibia. He embarked on a full-time career as artist in 1970. Westbrook was a member of the ' Bloemfontein Group', founded in the 1960s by Dr F.P. Scott. Together with artists Marianne and Alexander Podlashuc, Fr Frans Claerhout, Stefan and Iris Ampenberger, Mike Edwards and Louis Scott, Westbrook contributed two works to the twenty four pieces making up the F.P. Scott Trust at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

. This collection, with its strongly regional flavour, signaled the Group's commitment to the establishment of the Oliewenhuis gallery.

Kent

Having emigrated to the United Kingdom, Westbrook continued to find inspiration in landscapes, while rediscovering a passion for portraits, figures and

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

painting.

Exhibitions, commissions and collections

Walter Westbrook's work featured in solo and group exhibitions in South Africa, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the England. Major retrospective exhibitions of his work have been held at the

William Humphreys Art Gallery The William Humphreys Art Gallery, in Kimberley, South Africa, was opened in 1952 and named after its principal benefactor, William Benbow Humphreys (1889–1965). Origins In 1948, William Humphreys gave to the City of Kimberley a major part of ...

in Kimberley, the

University of the Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State (province), Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in ...

and the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

. Other galleries that have exhibited his paintings include the Sandton Gallery,

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

, Bakker Gallery, the South Africa Association of Arts, the Hoffer Gallery in Pretoria and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein. Westbrook's major art commissions included Standard Chartered Bank in New York, De Beers South Africa, De Beers Diamond Mines Kleinzee in Namaqualand, Southern Life South Africa, St James' Anglican church in Galeshewe, Kimberley, and the Agricultural Co-op Leeudoringstad. The

in Kimberley owns a significant collection of his work. His work is also to be found in private and public collections worldwide, including the Cotton Collection, USA, the

Iziko South African Museum The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important A ...

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 ...

Pretoria Art Museum The Pretoria Art Museum is an art gallery located in Arcadia, Pretoria in South Africa. The museum in Arcadia Park occupies an entire city block bounded by Park, Wessels, Schoeman and Johann Streets. The Pretoria Art Museum was established to ho ...

, UNISA in Pretoria, Willem Annandale Art Gallery in Lichtenburg, the SASOL art collection, the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein, the

, the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...

, the

and various South African embassies in Europe.

Publications and documentary

Westbrook's work is included in Berman's ''Art and artists of South Africa'' and in Alexander and Cohen's ''150 South African Paintings Past and Present''. It was also featured in episode 4 of the 13-part television documentary ''A Country Imagined'',johnnyclegg.blogspot.com – A country imagined. Accessed 28 May 2013
/ref> in which musician

Johnny Clegg Jonathan Paul Clegg, (7 June 195316 July 2019) was a South African musician, singer-songwriter, dancer, anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist, some of whose work was in musicology focused on the music of indigenous South African people ...

, as presenter, journeyed through South Africa engaging the connections between landscape, art and identity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westbrook, Walter 1921 births 2015 deaths Artists from Pretoria People from Kimberley, Northern Cape 20th-century South African painters South African expatriates in the United Kingdom 21st-century South African painters