Gabriel de Jongh

[1] Tinus de Jongh travelled to South Africa in 1921, his wife following with the family six months later, and settled in a cottage in Fish Hoek.

Gabriel spent all his free time producing small watercolours of the Malay Quarter, Cape Town Docks and Table Mountain.

Injured by anti-personnel shells, he was declared medically unfit, arriving back in South Africa on 12 June 1945, and returning to work at The Cape Times, traumatised by his war experiences.

In 1946 he acquired an army truck converted to a caravan, and set off with his wife and son Tinus, on a grand painting tour of the Eastern Cape, Basutoland and Natal.

Gabriel made lengthy tours of Britain, Europe, South America and East Africa, but remained devoted to the landscapes of the Western Cape, referred to by his descendants as the "boompie-bergie-huisie-thing".

He was commissioned to paint the Villa Dubochet in Clarens, where President Paul Kruger died in exile, and Boekenhoutfontein, his historic homestead near Rustenburg.

Other commissions included Jan van Riebeek's landing in Table Bay, the 1963 volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha, and a 1,8 x 2,4 metre canvas of the elephant Ndlulamithi.

Gabriel established the Tinus de Jongh Memorial Gallery in Stellenbosch in 1981 and turned into a major tourist attraction on the wine route.