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MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | GOODMAN, Robert (Gwelo)Born: 1871Died: 1939 03 11 Artist Architect | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Though primarily an artist, Goodman developed a keen interest in the historic architecture of the Cape, particularly the Cape Dutch buildings in and around Cape Town. His idiosyncratic architectural solution for the village for employees of Tongaat Sugar in Natal is well-known. Born in Taplow, England, Goodman came with his father to Cape Town in 1886 and worked for the South African Railways while attending art classes run by John Morland. On Morland's advice he went to Paris in 1895 and attended classes at the Julien Atelier. He appears to have gone to London a few years later to study at the Royal Academy briefly and in 1898 his work was exhibited at the Royal Academy. Goodman returned to South Africa in 1900 to make sketches of the Anglo-Boer War battlefields of which he held an exhibition in Cape Town. According to Berman (1883:184) it was on this trip he adopted the name of Gwelo. He returned to England in about 1901 but in 1903/1904 he journeyed to India, travelling and painting. He returned again to England where he remained until about 1911 when he came back to South Africa for a short time for health reasons. In 1915, having spent a few more years in England he again returned to South Africa. After a short trip overseas he settled in Cape Town in 1917, but, evidently fond of travelling, also lived for periods in Durban and Johannesburg. In Cape Town Goodman developed his interest in the architecture of the Cape and in 1920 he rented Newlands House. Several of his paintings of Cape Dutch Houses, from the Phillips collection, were used to illustrate Dorothea Fairbridge's Historic houses of South Africa (1922). In 1924 he exhibited his work at the Royal Institute Gallery in Piccadilly with great success. Although this was the year of the Wembley Exhibition, where there was an exhibition of South African art works, Goodman's show appears to have been among the first London exhibitions of South African art. In the last decade of his life he became preoccupied with architecture. A friend, Douglas Saunders, had invited Goodman to design the alterations to the family home Amanzimnyama and its garden, near Tongaat in 1936. Saunders was prompted to improve the quality of living for his workers in the anti-malarial drive of the 1930s and invited Goodman in December 1937 to re-design the workers' housing for the Saunders Sugar Estate. In setting about the design Goodman recalled the architecture he most enjoyed, the Cape Dutch style and proceeded to create a Cape Dutch Revival town. He worked together with Dr PN Labuschagne and the General Manager RGT Watson. In his design for the 'Native village' of Hambanati he persuaded the Inspector of Urban Locations to abandon the strict rules for rectangular planning. The enterprise had a varied reception but left its mark on Town Planning in South Africa. Goodman was an individualist, as Jeppe (1964:37) points out, and his response to his surroundings reflected in his art, colourful and highly romantic, was more South African than many a South African of the time. (Berman 1983; Fairbridge 1922; Fransen 1982; Newton-Thompson 1951; Jeppe 1964; Ons Kuns 1 1959:66; S v d Stel Bull 12 Apr 1966:42; The Condenser, vol 3 No 1, Dec 1953: 'Garbled gables. A note on the use and misuse of Cape Dutch architecture', article by RGT Watson)See also Strauss&Co. All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. List of projects With photographs With notes
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