Egyptian Collection at the Iziko: Slave Lodge, Cape Town
IZIKO MUSEUMS OF CAPE TOWN
(formerly South African Cultural History Museum)
Corner Adderley & Wale Streets, Cape Town
Open: Monday to Saturday 10:00-17.00
Telephone +27 (0)21 460 8242
Closed Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas day.
The South African Cultural History Museum forms part of IZIKO Museums of Cape Town, which include cultural as well as natural history. Artefacts are displayed in a number of buildings situated in and around Cape Town.
The collections of the South African Cultural History Museum are on display in the Slave Lodge, the second oldest building in Cape Town. The original building – erected in 1679 - served as a lodge for the slaves of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Initially it was a single storey building, but in the mid-18th century a second storey was added. In 1807 the British government moved the slaves to other premises and subsequently the building served as the first post office, library and the Supreme Court.
The ancient Egyptian collection is a small, but comprehensive collection incorporating artefacts from the Predynastic to Roman times. The main bulk of the artefacts dates from the early Dynastic period (3050 – 2686 BC) and was excavated at Kafr-Tarkhan by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (d. 1942) on behalf of the British School of Archaeology during the 1911/12 and 1912/13 seasons. Tarkhan is 59 kilometres south of Cairo, but the pottery styles relate to the south, indicating the influence of the southern culture in the First Dynasty.
Sir Flinders Petrie had a South African ‘connection’. His paternal grandparents, Margaret Mitten and William Petrie, resided at the Cape of Good Hope for about ten years from 1829.
One of their sons, William Petrie Junior, married Anne Flinders, daughter of Ann Chappell and Captain Matthews Flinders, the explorer and cartographer of Australia. Their only child, William Matthew Flinders Petrie was born on 3rd June 1853.
Petrie visited Egypt for the first time in the 1880’s. Soon after this he started excavating on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund, later to become The Egypt Exploration Society. In 1906 Petrie proposed the formation of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt to support him and his students. He was also known as ‘the father of Egyptian archaeology’ because he was the first person to introduce scientific methods on sites in Egypt, although he had no training as an archaeologist. The portrait was painted in 1934 by Philip de Lazlo.
The Ancient Collection also has a number of artefacts from the Ancient Near East (pottery, cylinder seals, cuneiform tablets), Roman items and a small, but excellent collection of Greek vases (black-on-red and red-on-black).
The famous painting “The Subsiding of the Nile” by Frederick Goodall, R.A. held in Cape Town
The Subsiding of the Nile
Oil on canvas,
Frederick Goodall, R.A. (1822-1904)
See picture inset details below.
Painted in 1872, this picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1873 and purchased by art dealer Ernest Gambart for 1200 Guineas – a good sum in those days. Later it was sold to Sir William Agnew and in 1903 it appears it belonged to a Mr. Orr of Glasgow. An unconfirmed report suggests the painting was bought in Cairo in 1912 by a Mr. E.D. Anderson. (See below)
This was the largest picture painted by Frederick Goodall – it is approximately 4 metres long and 2 metres high. The ornate frame appears to be the original frame.
This photograph was taken when the picture was hanging on the first floor of the Cape Town City Hall. Due to the size and weight of the painting and frame, wall brackets supported the frame at the base causing the picture to hang forward at an angle.
In response to the efforts of The Egyptian Society of South Africa in the interests of securing the painting for the future and achieving greater visibility and appreciation, the picture was removed from the unfavourable position in the Cape Town City Hall and loaned to the South African Cultural History Museum in 1997.
Unfortunately, due to changes in the directorship of the museum and other reasons, the picture remained crated for 6 years in a store-room at the museum in Adderley Street. In 2003 the picture was transferred to the Cape Town Council store-room where it awaits a decision on its future.
The picture belongs to the people of the City of Cape Town. However, there is uncertainty about the date and manner of acquisition. In 1968 T.J. & E.D. Anderson claimed it was on loan to the City but a court rejected the claim as there was no proof of ownership. It is claimed that an untraceable newspaper report in1968 stated the picture has been in the City Hall for at least 40 years.
Keith Grenville
September 2003
The inset above shows the left bottom corner
The inset above shows the centre-right detail.
Frederick Goodall, R.A. (1822-1904)
London painter of landscapes, genre and Egyptian subjects. He was born on September 17th, 1822 in St. John’s Wood, London, the second son of Edward Goodall, a renowned steel line engraver, and brother of Edward Angelo Goodall. His mother was of Huguenot descent. Frederick was one of 6 brothers and 4 sisters and received his education at the Wellington Road Academy, a private school which Charles Dickens had attended. He won a silver medal at the Society of Arts 1837, at the age of 14. His early works are mainly genre and peasant scenes in the David Wilkie tradition, but later he specialised in views of Egypt, scenes of Egyptian life and biblical genre. Elected Associate of the Royal Academy 1852 and in 1863 he was admitted as a member. Two of his sons, Frederick Trevelyan and Herbert H. Goodall were painters. At the height of his career, he was earning over 10,000 Pounds Sterling per year, but later his fortunes declined, and he was declared bankrupt in 1902.
Frederick Goodall wrote: “I used my Egyptian sheep for this picture and all the studies I had made for it in the immediate locality, especially the ancient causeway supposed to have been built for transporting the stones of which the Pyramids are built. The enormous quarries are on the other side of the Nile, some eight miles away. The most beautiful time of the whole year is when the Nile overflows almost to the foot of the Pyramids. As it subsides, there almost immediately springs up on the higher portions of the land the vegetation which affords without any cultivation an immense quantity of food for the Bedouin flocks.”
(The Reminiscences of Frederick Goodall, R.A., London, 1902)
Goodall made his second and last visit to Egypt in 1870-71, accompanied by his brother Edward. Basing himself at Saqqara in the house of the distinguished archaeologist and founder of the Egyptian Museum Auguste Mariette-Bey. He spent several months sketching places and people to be used as the raw material for future paintings. In 1872 he began using some of his preparatory sketches and the result was The Subsiding of the Nile exhibited at the Royal Academy (No. 292) in 1873. There is a reduced version of The Subsiding of the Nile (76 x 152 cm) exhibited in the City of London’s Guildhall Art Gallery (No. 63). This smaller painting, a quarter of the size of the Cape Town picture, is signed with the monogram FG and dated 1873.
The Subsiding of the Nile shows the Giza Plateau from the south-east, with the Great Pyramid of Khufu on the right, and the second Pyramid of Khafra on the left behind the palm trees and the Sphinx just visible in the centre. The sheep in the foreground were painted from the flock the artist bought in Egypt and sent to England to be used as models for this picture.
When Frederick Goodall died in 1904 there were examples of his works in many provincial art galleries in addition to the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is buried at Highgate Cemetery in London along with family members.
