Du Toit, Paul (1922 – 1986)

Paul du Toit was born is 1922 in Noordehoek, Cape Province and died in 1986 in Stellenbosch, Western Cape
Cape. Du Toit spent the years 1944 – 1946 learning and studying in Jean Welz’s studio, thereafter he had no tutor
but himself and nature. Since his youth he had been intensely interested in natural phenomena, the cycles of
nature, the interaction of natural forces, the structures and processes of microscopic forms and their equivalence
with cosmic laws. He never tired of giving expression to these phenomena, moving into a totally abstract
language during a sojourn in Paris, in the 1950’s.

Paul du Toit’s landscapes were painted mainly in the Cape, and although reduced to their essential elements, they
were painted from actual scenes in the Cedarberg, Namaqualand and the little Karoo. By shedding non-essential
landscape details, he achieved in his painting an evocation of the spirit of the landscape, adding his deeply felt
sense of the mystical forces which formed and live in it.