Gabriel De Jongh

When someone refers to a De Jongh landscape, People ask, Tinus or Gabriël. For the public the only difference is in the price.

While Tinus focused more on realistic expressions of landscapes, and architecture, Gabriël the romantic dreamer wanted to go a step further. He wanted to interpret nature with its own meaning. Some critics called his work sentimental.

At the age of 86 Gabriël is still as active an artist as he has been the past 56 years. After he matriculated at Hoërskool Rondebosch for boys he started working at the art department of the Cape Times where he got some experience on art reproduction. In 1937 he had an exhibition with Tinus at the Riviera hotel where all his painting were sold.

The next year Gabriël married Mercia and history repeated itself in a very ironic way. Neither Mercia nor the kids had any interest in art, and Tinus Junior worked in a printing company in Cape Town and Candy became a medical doctor.

As far as Gabriël is concerned his father has always been the Master. Between 1910 and 1920 there were 2000 artists in Amsterdam but Tinus at the age of 16 already had permission to tour the Rijksmuseum by himself where he studied all the master pieces. With one single portrait sold he paid for the whole family’s trip here.

Years later Gabriël bought the painting back, and today it has a special place in his dining room.

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