9 Report from Retief at Blydevooruitsig (11 November 1837) A2/A3 B2a/b C2 D N 9 Blydevooruitsig 26 27 1 25 2 East wall, south-east projection, above door (panel 11/31) 24 3 h. 2.3 × w. 2.4 m 4 23 Horizontally broken in two parts; fracture running across knees of back- ground figure on left, over top of door frame, through neck of woman on 22 5 right; water stains top right corner Sculptor of the clay maquettes: Hennie Potgieter 21 6 Stages of production 20 A1 W.H. Coetzer, pencil drawing, retained only in A2 (April–June 1937) 7 A2 Reproduction of A1 (June 1937) 19 A3 W.H. Coetzer, revised pencil drawing A1, h. 13.5 × w. 15.3 cm 8 18 (after September 1937) 17 9 Annotations: ‘Brief van Retief oorhandig aan Voortrekkers bo op 16 10 Drakensberg / Blyde Vooruitsig’ (Letter from Retief handed over to the 15 14 13 12 11 Voortrekkers on top of the Drakensberg / ‘Blydevooruitsig’ (name of location meaning ‘joyful prospect’) 0 5 10 m B1 One-third-scale clay maquettes, not extant but replicated in B2a/b (1942–43) B2 a. Rejected one-third-scale plaster maquette, h. 77 × w. 89.7 × d. 10.3 cm (1942–43) b. New unfinished one-third-scale plaster maquette, h. 76 × w. 92.2 × d. 8 cm (1942–43) C1 Full-scale wooden armature, not extant (1943–46) C2 Full-scale clay relief, not extant but recorded in photograph; replicated in C3 (1943–46) C3 Full-scale plaster relief (1943–46), not extant but copied in D (late 1947–49) D Marble as installed in the Monument (1949) Early records SVK minutes (29.5.1937) ― item 4a ‘Brief van mnr. F. Steytler (Harrismith) waarin hy daarop wys dat Piet Retief nie teruggekeer het na Blyde Vooruitzicht nie, en dat as daar in die reeks taferele ’n paneel verskyn van Blyde Vooruitzicht dan moet dit nie die terugkoms van Retief voorstel nie. Besluit: Die Sekretaris sal aan mnr. Steytler berig dat die tafelere histories korrek uitgewerk sal word’ (Letter from Mr F. Steytler [Harrismith] in which he indicates that Piet Retief never returned to Blydevooruitsig and that, if a panel of Blydevooruitsig is shown in the series of scenes, Retief’s return must not be portrayed. Decision: The Secretary will report to Mr Steytler that the scenes will be correctly developed historically) SVK minutes (4.9.1937) ― item 4h (see below, ‘Developing the design’) Wenke (c. 1934–36) ― item I. F.A. STEYTLER, b. ‘Trekkerwaens teen die hange van Drakensberg; dogertjie as touleier, Blyde Vooruitzicht’ (Trek wagons on the cliffs of the Drakensberg; little girl as team-leader, Blydevooruitsig) / item VI. ‘SEN. F.S. MALAN, 7. ‘Ander toneel: Terugkeer van Piet Retief van besoek by Dingaan, op Drakensberge, by Blyde Vooruitzicht’ (Other scene: Return of Piet Retief from visit to Dingane, over the Drakensberg, at Blyde- vooruitsig) Moerdyk Layout (5.10.1936–15.1.1937) ―scene 8 on panel 12/31 ‘Blydevooruitsig’ Jansen Memorandum (19.1.1937) ― item 7.8 ‘The Voortrekkers on the Drakensberg (Blydevooruitsig) near Retiefklip [Retief stone]. Here the camp life will be portrayed as also receipt of the news of land being obtainable from Dingaan’ Open Access. © 2020 Elizabeth Rankin and Rolf Michael Schneider, published by De Gruyter and African Minds. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110668797-014 158 9 Blydevooruitsig Figure 9.1: D. Blydevooruitsig. 1949. Marble, 2.3 × 2.4 m (courtesy of VTM; photo Russell Scott) Description 159 Description As for Soutpansberg, Marthinus Oosthuizen and Mpande, the composition is determined by the odd shape of the relief, as a large section of the rectangle is cut out, slightly off-centre, to accommodate the gable-shaped door frame (fig. 9.1). The dominating figure is the young rider with a brimmed hat who arrives on a stallion. Like the other male Voortrekkers in this panel, he wears the short Voor- trekker jacket, and is beardless. He leans forward to present a piece of paper to a boy with combed- back hair, who stretches out his right hand eagerly to receive the message. The boy’s legs and the forelegs of the horse are partly obscured by the door frame. From the far right comes another, more mature Boer carrying a small animal over his shoulders. The sculptor, Hennie Potgieter, implies that he represents a hunter,306 but it does not appear to be a typical buck as the ear is small and rounded and the head rather compact, like the lamb in the centre of Departure.307 To the right of the door frame sits a young woman in a long-sleeved dress with her hair drawn back in a plaited bun, visible because her head is turned to look towards the message bearer. She is busy with needle- work, with fabric and scissors placed on the sloping incline of the door frame. Her counterpart, a young man with a quiff hairstyle, also facing inwards, is squashed into the lower section on the left, either sitting or crouching. He is doing cobbler’s work, his shoemaker’s last and saddle hammer resting on the other incline. An exceptional figure in the frieze is the black man in the left background, seen back view and distinguished from the Voortrekkers by his hair, bare torso and the arduous work he undertakes. He is stretching long leather thongs fixed on a sturdy frame made of a horizontal branch supported on vertical cut-off branches, one of which is visible. Hennie Potgieter explains: The person in the background inserts a long stick through the arc of wood to which a stone weight is attached that stretches the thongs from the crossbar. The worker walks in a circle to wind up the thongs, then pulls out the stick so that the weight rolls back and winds up in the opposite direction. In this way the thongs are stretched.308 306 Potgieter 1987, 20. He does not identify figures specifically, but rather their occupations, stating that the scene portrays ‘die normal bedrywighede in ’n laer soos jag, rieme brei, skoene versool en naaiwerk’ (the normal activities in a laager, such as hunting, stretching thongs, resoling shoes and needlework). 307 Heymans and Theart-Peddle 2009, 23 (‘the Voortrekkers … hunted’); Grobler 2001, 94 (‘The man … is returning from a hunt with a buck on his shoulders’). 308 Potgieter 1987, 20: ‘Die persoon op die agtergrond steek die lang stok deur die houtboog waaraan ’n klipgewig geheg is, wat die rieme van die dwarsbalk af span. Die werker loop in ’n sirkel om sodoende die rieme op te wen, dan trek hy die stok uit om die gewig na benede le laat rol om weer na die teenoorgestelde kant op te wen. Op hierdie wyse word die rieme gebrei.’ Rooyen (1938, 58–65) provides a thorough description of braiding thongs. 160 9 Blydevooruitsig Figure 9.2: A2. W.H. Coetzer. Reproduction of first sketch for Blyde- Figure 9.3: A3. W.H. Coetzer. ‘Blyde Vooruitsig’. After September vooruitsig. June 1937 (courtesy of ARCA PV94 1/75/5/1; photo the 1937. Pencil, 13.5 × 15.3 cm. Revised first sketch (photo courtesy of authors) Museum Africa, no. 66/2194K) Figure 9.4: B2a. Hennie Potgieter. Blydevooruitsig. 1942–43. Figure 9.5: B2b. Hennie Potgieter. Blydevooruitsig. 1942–43. Plaster, Plaster, 77 × 89.7 × 10.3 cm. Rejected maquette (courtesy of VTM 76 × 92.2 × 8 cm. New maquette (courtesy of VTM Museum VTM Museum VTM 2184/1–28; photo Russell Scott) 2184/1–28; photo Russell Scott) Developing the design 161 Developing the design A comparison of Coetzer’s designs reveals significant changes between the reproduction of the first pencil drawing (fig. 9.2) presented to the SVK on 26 June 1837 and its revised version (fig. 9.3) after the Historiese Komitee meeting on 4 September 1937 when the following alterations were required: Blydevooruitsig [Joyful Prospect]. The milk jug is incorrect; the people did not bring a letter; it must be a bowl instead of a cup; the thongs that are being stretched must be thicker.309 In the revised pencil drawing, the key group of the rider delivering a letter to a bearded Boer, with a woman, girl and dog forming part of the welcoming group remains. But while Coetzer ignored the Historiese Komitee’s claim that there was no letter, he made numerous changes. Not all of them were listed in the minutes, which suggests that there may have been more informal discussions also. The erasure of altered items left numerous faint traces under the final pencil surface, showing particularly well how Coetzer went about revising his first pencil sketches. For the second sketch, from left to right, he 1) obliterated the three-legged pot over the fire; 2) reduced the height of the tripod; 3) introduced an axe; 4) erased the table; 5) changed the position, pose and action of the woman on the left, who is now shown with a kappie and a kettle; 6) deleted the man holding up a book behind her; 7) moved the tree further to the left; 8) fastened the fluttering kerchief of the man in the centre and removed the hat he held up in greeting; and 9) rubbed out the riempie stool next to him. There are also traces of an earlier but unclear object in the space between the axe, the left leg of the central trekker and the left foot of the Boer who is stretching thongs. As requested by the Historiese Komitee, Coetzer eliminated the milk jug and the cup but ignored the instruction to thicken the thongs.