The Most Famous
PAINTERS from South Africa
This page contains a list of the greatest South African Painters. The pantheon dataset contains 2,023 Painters, 3 of which were born in South Africa. This makes South Africa the birth place of the 47th most number of Painters behind Estonia, and Armenia.
Top 5
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary South African Painters of all time. This list of famous South African Painters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Marlene Dumas (b. 1953)
With an HPI of 51.88, Marlene Dumas is the most famous South African Painter. Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages on wikipedia.
Marlene Dumas (born 3 August 1953) is a South African artist and painter currently based in the Netherlands.
2. William Kentridge (b. 1955)
With an HPI of 44.57, William Kentridge is the 2nd most famous South African Painter. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two seconds' screen time. A single drawing will be altered and filmed this way until the end of a scene. These palimpsest-like drawings are later displayed along with the films as finished pieces of art. Kentridge has created art work as part of design of theatrical productions, both plays and operas. He has served as art director and overall director of numerous productions, collaborating with other artists, puppeteers and others in creating productions that combine drawings and multi-media combinations.
3. Florence Fuller (1867 - 1946)
With an HPI of 42.12, Florence Fuller is the 3rd most famous South African Painter. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Florence Ada Fuller (1867 – 17 July 1946) was a South African-born Australian artist. Originally from Port Elizabeth, Fuller migrated as a child to Melbourne with her family. There she trained with her uncle Robert Hawker Dowling and teacher Jane Sutherland and took classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, becoming a professional artist in the late 1880s. In 1892 she left Australia, travelling first to South Africa, where she met and painted for Cecil Rhodes, and then on to Europe. She lived and studied there for the subsequent decade, except for a return to South Africa in 1899 to paint a portrait of Rhodes. Between 1895 and 1904 her works were exhibited at the Paris Salon and London's Royal Academy. In 1904, Fuller returned to Australia, living in Perth. She became active in the Theosophical Society and painted some of her best-known work, including A Golden Hour, described by the National Gallery of Australia as a "masterpiece" when it acquired the work in 2013. Beginning in 1908, Fuller travelled extensively, living in India and England before ultimately settling in Sydney. There, she was the inaugural teacher of life drawing at the School of Fine and Applied Arts, established in 1920 by the New South Wales Society of Women Painters. She died in 1946. Highly regarded during her active career as a portrait and landscape painter, by 1914 Fuller was represented in four public galleries—three in Australia and one in South Africa—a record for a woman who was an Australian painter at that time. In 1927 she began almost twenty years of institutionalization in a mental asylum, however, and her death went without notice. After her death, information about her was frequently omitted from reference books about Australian painters and knowledge of her work became obscure despite her paintings being held in public art collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Australia's National Portrait Gallery.
4. Maggie Laubser (1886 - 1973)
With an HPI of 41.47, Maggie Laubser is the 4th most famous South African Painter. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Maria Magdalena Laubser (; 14 April 1886 – 17 May 1973) was a South African painter and printmaker. She is generally considered, along with Irma Stern, to be responsible for the introduction of Expressionism to South Africa. Her work was initially met with derision by critics but has gained wide acceptance, and now she is regarded as an exemplary and quintessentially South African artist.
5. Emily Ford (1851 - 1930)
With an HPI of 0.00, Emily Ford is the 5th most famous South African Painter. Her biography has been translated into different languages.
Emily Susan Ford (1850–1930) was an English artist and campaigner for women's rights. She was born into a Quaker family in Leeds, and trained as an artist at the Slade School of Art and exhibited at the Royal Academy.
People
Pantheon has 5 people classified as South African painters born between 1851 and 1955. Of these 5, 2 (40.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living South African painters include Marlene Dumas, and William Kentridge. The most famous deceased South African painters include Florence Fuller, Maggie Laubser, and Emily Ford. As of April 2024, 2 new South African painters have been added to Pantheon including Florence Fuller, and Emily Ford.
Living South African Painters
Go to all RankingsDeceased South African Painters
Go to all Rankings
Florence Fuller
1867 - 1946
HPI: 42.12
Maggie Laubser
1886 - 1973
HPI: 41.47
Emily Ford
1851 - 1930
HPI: 0.00
