Profile: Terence McCaw

Founder member of the New Group
and created appeal for Cape Impressionism

Terence McCaw (1913 – 1978) was awarded a scholarship to study at the Witwatersrand Technical Art School, where he was enrolled from 1930 to 1933 and studied under Sydney Carter and Emily Fern – the influence of Carter on his work endured throughout his artistic career. McCaw and Walter Battiss met and became close friends while studying together; with Battiss declaring him “without doubt the best painter at the school.” They maintained a life-long friendship and went on several painting trips together. Determined to earn his living as a professional artist he worked in Cape Town for a year after his studies before returning to Johannesburg to work as a commercial artist. One can only guess that this was a compromise brought on by the harsh reality of trying to earn a living from his art while he was yet to establish a reputation. In 1935 his extremely skilled draftsmanship saw him taking first prize in a South African Railways poster competition. Thereafter he was awarded with a travel bursary to study art abroad. He furthered his training in London at Heatherleys and the Central School of Art. While in London he exhibited with the London Group and Royal Watercolour society. His talent and skill was such that while still a student he had paintings hung in the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal British Association, the Royal Portrait Society and at Agnews of Bond Street. He then spent six months traveling and painting in Spain and Morocco before returning to South Africa in 1937, where after he returned once again to Cape Town.
McCaw then became a founder member and active protagonist of the New Group, established in 1938 with Battiss and Gregoire Boonzaier. While working in close association with Boonzaier, McCaw would have been exposed to the work of first generation Cape Impressionist - Pieter Wenning, who had been a close friend of the Boonzaier family. Wenning’s influence is discernible in Boonzaier’s work but is much more strongly present in McCaw, even though McCaw states Cezanne as influence; this is more visible in Boonzaier’s work. Therefore these two young artists seem to share much cross-pollination of inspiration, intent and influence. Similarly both artists were caught up in the same position. Starting off as highly talented, skilled and ambitious; that which would have first been ‘new’ work, though hardly avante garde especially as second generation Cape Impressionists, as the public received their styles favorably they were then forced into a position of maintaining a course, lest they lose their buying public. In contrast, Battiss did not depend on his art sales for his income, for this he relied on teaching art. He was therefore free to keep pushing the boundaries of his artwork and experiment freely – leaving the other two behind in terms of stylistic trends and thereby remaining at the forefront of South African art developments throughout his life. “Terence told me how doing Commercial Art for a living in Johannesburg had injured his creative vision. Actually that’s what later undid him… I think with all his easy talent of elegant style Terence finally signed his artistic death warrant painting for a commercial gallery and getting tied up, with no escape.”

He was appointed in November 1943 as one of the Official War Artists for the South African Defence Force to record the events of WWII, where he was mainly stationed in Italy. This allowed some respite from the ideals of the New Group in order to capture the landscape of warfare in a fairly realistic manner. The spontaneity, directness and strong visual appeal of Cape Impressionism was well-suited to this purpose as “his pictorial account of people, places and events along the battlefront won him further acclaim.” After the War he returned to South Africa and settled in Hout Bay. In 1948 four works were included in the Overseas Exhibition of South African Art. In 1950 he joined a scientific expedition to Mozambique and Zimbabwe as official artist to record newly discovered paintings of the ‘Bushmen’. This trip resulted in a show in Harare and included landscapes of the Zambezi area. Following this he spent a year painting in Zanzibar, the artworks from this time he then exhibited in Nairobi. In 1952 he returned to visit Italy and lived on the island of Ischia for a year. While he returned to live in Hout Bay he was to make many return visits to paint in Italy. The ‘50’s were not a particularly productive time artistically for McCaw. He fell ill and seemed to struggle to regain his health. One may conjecture that he was perhaps floundering to find his way artistically, having for so long painted to fulfill public demand and expectation of his work. Consequently he painted only sporadically which resulted in works of varying degrees of quality during the 1950’s.
The 1960’s saw McCaw concentrating his creative energy into his property at Hout Bay and his reportedly magnificent garden. This nurturing of his surrounds bore artistic fruit and a second wave of renewed energy as McCaw went on the have two highly successful one-man exhibitions in 1972 and 1975. He died at the age of 64 in February 1978. “He had painted for over 40 years, exhibited throughout the world, and won the acclamation and respect of critics and public alike both here and overseas.”

Eds. Harmsen, F. & Cook, D. (1979) De Arte 23 April 1979, Unisa Journal of the Department of Art History and Fine Arts, Pretoria: Unisa, p. 48 quotation from a letter by Walter Battiss.
Eds. Huntingford, N.P.C & Hardy, R.E. (1982) The WWII Works of Terence MacCaw S.A. National Gallery Catalogue 1983 Johannesburg: S.A. National Museum of Military History.
Eds. Harmsen, F. & Cook, D. (1979) De Arte 23 April 1979, Unisa Journal of the Department of Art History and Fine Arts, Pretoria: Unisa, p. 48 quotation from a letter by Walter Battiss – italics his emphasis
Eds. Huntingford, N.P.C & Hardy, R.E. (1982) The WWII Works of Terence MacCaw S.A. National Gallery Catalogue 1983 Johannesburg: S.A. National Museum of Military History
Ibid.
Ibid.
Werth, A.J. Bulletin, Pretoria Art Museum, Volume 12 No. 3 July 1978. Quoted from the 1974 exhibition catalogue.
Eds. Huntingford, N.P.C & Hardy, R.E. (1982) The WWII Works of Terence MacCaw S.A. National Gallery Catalogue 1983 Johannesburg: S.A. National Museum of Military History