Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning (9 September 1873 – 24 January 1921)[1] was a South African painter and etcher, considered to be the progenitor of the style of Cape Impressionism.

Despite Bubberman's persuasions, Wenning's parents were dubious and steered him towards a position at headquarters of the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg Maatschappij in Amsterdam,[1] where he gained rapid promotion and was transferred to an administrative post in Zaandam.

His sympathies with the plight of the Dutch poor became his undoing, when, in 1903, he participated in a general strike in solidarity with blue-collar railroad workers.

Wenning had married a young widow, Johanna Hillegonda Kramer, on 3 September 1898, and she had two children from a previous marriage.

To support his family he obtained employment with the firm of J. H. de Bussy in Amsterdam, the largest publishing house in the Netherlands.

Other early members were Marcelle Piltan, Selina Harding, Madge Cook, Nina Murray, Sydney Stent and Mr G. Schild.

He brought with him etchings and reproductions by French and Dutch masters, visiting leading Cape artists and collectors in the hope of interesting them.

After a failed attempt to start his own venture, an art shop on the corner of Eloff and Plain Streets, he took a position at his friend Van Schaik's bookshop in Pretoria.

D. C. Boonzaier came to his aid by persuading several of his friends to guarantee a sum of money sufficient to enable Wenning to work in the Cape for three months.

Wenning arrived at the Cape on 2 March 1916, met by Boonzaier, who had rented a large room in Government House, Newlands Avenue.

In bad weather Wenning painted still lifes in Boonzaier's study, with objects like an old Chinese Buddha or a Ming bowl.

Wenning took a studio at the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, the original home built by Lady Anne Barnard in 1799.

[3] Despite poor health he managed to exhibit ten more works in Cape Town, on 9 July 1917, in collaboration with Edward Roworth, Hugo Naudé and Nita Spilhaus.

[3] Trips to Lourenco Marques and Durban followed, but by the winter of 1918, Wenning was back in the Cape, where an influenza epidemic was raging.

Yet the myth of Wenning's spontaneity is effectively exploded by the existence of a large number of studies, sketches and unfinished drawings.

[10] Everard Read and Anton Hendriks (director of the Johannesburg Municipal Art Gallery) brought the existence of Wenning fakes to public attention in 1963.