Information

The primarily seventeenth-century paintings in the collection of the Pretoria Art Museum originate mainly from the Lady Michaelis Collection. In 1910, the art connoisseur and collector Sir Hugh Lane, the then Director of the National Gallery in Ireland, had journeyed to South Africa to help establish the Johannesburg Municipal Art Gallery. Upon return to London, he set about expanding his own collection, on the understanding that it would in due course be purchased and donated to South Africa. 

Lady Phillips, who played a key role in creating the Johannesburg Municipal Art Gallery, successfully interested Sir Max Michaelis in the Lane Collection, which he bought in 1913 and donated in 1914. Sir Max and Lady Michaelis later collected additional paintings, which Lady Michaelis donated to the National Gallery in Cape Town and the Pretoria Art Museum after her husband’s death in 1932.

The Dutch and Flemish artworks in the collection include Portrait of a Lady, attributed to Jan van Ravensteyn, Harbor Scene (the Salute) by Willem van de Velde the Younger from 1664, and a portrait of Eleanor Gwyn by Sir Peter Lely, dated 1678. 

Dirk Oegema, Functional Head (February 2024)