George ENSLIN (1919 – 1972)
Maydon Wharf-Durban
1959
oil on canvas
44.5 x 34.5 cm
Stillewe – Proteas
year unknown
oil on canvas
size unknown
Tempera Huisie-Kaapstad
1939
mixed media on brown paper
25.5 x 35 cm
BIOGRAPHY
George Jean August Enslin was born in Richmond, in the United Kingdom. His father, Reverend GJA Enslin – who was military chaplain of the South African Overseas Forces’ 1st SA Infantry Brigade – was gassed while serving in France. He returned to England to convalesce and met Annie Attwood, a nurse, whom he married in September, 1918. The family returned to South Africa in 1920, the year after George was born, and settled in Elgin in the Cape.
George Enslin was educated at Higher Boys School in Wellington and Higher Boys School in Stellenbosch. He studied commercial art under Arthur Podolini-Volkmann at the School of Commercial and Fine Art in Cape Town in 1941 and under Maurice van Essche at the Continental School of Art in 1946. He then went on to study at Heatherley School of Fine Art in London in 1949, at Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris in 1950 and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara, Italy, also in 1950. He returned to South Africa later the same year.
Enslin possessed an unquenchable wanderlust and travelled in many parts of the world by caravan and yacht. A gypsy-painter, he pitched camp and painted wherever the mood took him. He travelled to Japan in the 1960s to study Japanese woodblock printing, enamel work, bronze casting and pottery making. In 1966, during his sixth visit, he met Noriko in Osaka and they married in December that year.
Their marriage was not legally recognised under the apartheid laws of South Africa, so they travelled to England in 1967 where their marriage was registered and Noriko Enslin obtained British nationality.
In 1967, they lived on a yacht in Greece.
Their two daughters, Annette and Nancy, were born in Japan.
In 1972, Enslin and his family settled in Aegina near Athens, Greece. That same year, he died from a stroke. His wife and their two girls eventually returned to Japan.
Enslin produced paintings, drawings, mixed media artworks and sculptures. He held several solo exhibitions in various southern African cities between 1948 and 1970, and his work is represented in the Pretoria Art Museum; the William Humphries Art Gallery, Kimberley; Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein; Durban Art Gallery; and the University of Pretoria Art Collection.