Desirée Rorke
Honouring a deathbed promise she made to her father to look after his art, Natalie Egling is in search of two of his paintings that hold a special place in her heart.
These paintings she fondly refers to as her dad’s “eggies”, found its way to a charity shop in Cape Town about three years ago and could very well be hanging on the walls of a house in the northern suburbs.
Amateur artist
Les Egling (1946-2024) was an amateur artist who painted primarily South African landscapes. In his lifetime, he amassed more than 200 paintings covering scenes from Pilgrim’s Rest to Patensie, Graaff-Reinet to Glencairn Heights.
After passing away in Johannesburg in August of last year, Natalie, who resides in England, packed up his art – from pencil sketches to water colours to oils on canvas – and had them shipped to her home in South East London.
“I started sorting and photographing them to catalogue in a book for friends and family. The book is part-appreciation, part-catalogue raisonné. But, frustratingly, in the process of making it, I discovered that it’s almost impossible to capture his full collection. There are paintings I hear about from family members, rediscover in the background of old photographs, or vaguely recall from my youth, but whose whereabouts are unknown,” she tells TygerBurger.
“The missing works that hurt the most are from my dad’s ‘eggie’ period that he swapped with an artist he knew locally when he lived in Mossel Bay.
Childhood nostalgia
The two pieces, named The Swing and Cape Sunday School belong to a small collection of only 13 “eggie” paintings that Egling painted for one year of his life in 2007.
These works were inspired by South African artist Portchie, and signed “eggie” at the bottom with the year 2007.
“I particularly love his ‘eggie’ paintings.
“The combination of the vivid colour choices alongside local landscapes, vernacular architecture and traditional rural pastimes gives this collection a South Africanism that make me feel homesick. The style of this collection is very different to his usual work. While he mostly painted South African scenes, his ‘eggie’ paintings, to me, in particular, feel not only playful, but like a nostalgic South Africa in concentrated form. Like Oros before you add the water.”
Cape Sunday School portrays four little girls standing outside Pniël Congregational Church, situated at the foot of the craggy Simonsberg in the village of Pniël, just outside of Stellenbosch. In the other piece, The Swing, two sisters play on a tree swing. In the background, a Cape Dutch-style house sits below a red-rock mountain side.
Charity shop
“When I contacted the artist after my dad’s passing in 2024, she said that she had left them at a previous rental property and that the landlady had then taken them to a charity shop somewhere between 2021 and 2022. It really broke my heart to find out that they had been donated to a charity shop in the first place. But knowing that they were bought by someone who saw value in them artistically and aesthetically would be so comforting. I hate to think of them as unloved and lost. I would love to be able to get good quality photographs of them to include in the book I am compiling, as a currently only have low resolution images of them that won’t print well.”
“When he was dying, I told him I would look after them for him. All of my dad’s paintings hold special meaning to me, but I must admit that I have a special fondness for his “eggie” period. They speak to me. I think partly because I know that his upbringing was hard, and that in the “eggie” paintings, he’s revealing what he sees as valuable in childhood.
You must be logged in to post a comment.