Coert Steynberg
Sculpting the Dias statue, 1933
Birth name	Coert Laurens Steynberg
Born	7 January 1905 Hennops River Hennops River The Hennops River is a small river in Gauteng Province, South Africa that passes through Centurion. The banks of the Hennops are a popular location for hiking, camping and picnicking.... , South Africa South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
Died	28 July 1982 (aged 77) Pretoria Pretoria Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
Nationality	South African
Field	sculpture Sculpture Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals... , drawing Drawing Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
Training	Rhodes University Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public research university located in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, established in 1904. It is the province’s oldest university, and is one of the four universities in the province... Royal College of Art Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
Movement	Modernism Modernism Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
Works	Monuments, Statues, Coin Design
Awards	Honorary Life Membership: Royal Society of Arts, London Honorary Life Membership: South African Arts Association Honorary Membership: International Society of Arts and Letters, Lausanne, Switzerland D.Phil. (Honoris Causa): University of Pretoria Medal: Academia Nacional de Belas Artes, Portugal Medal: Admiralty of the Navy, Portugal Medal of Honour: South African Academy of Science & Art

Coert Steynberg (7 January 1905 – 28 July 1982) was a renowned South African sculptor who worked in stone, marble, bronze, copper and wood. His work is represented nationwide and internationally, including a statue of Bartholomew Dias in South Africa House

South Africa House

The High Commission of South Africa in London is the diplomatic mission from South Africa to the United Kingdom. It is located at South Africa House, a building on Trafalgar Square, London...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, a monument to Andries Pretorius

Andries Pretorius

Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius was a leader of the Boers who was instrumental in the creation of the Transvaal Republic, as well as the earlier but short-lived Natalia Republic, in present-day South Africa....

 in Graaff-Reinet, and the Peace of Vereeniging monument in Vereeniging.
Steynberg is best known for sculpting a statue of Paul Kruger

Paul Kruger

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger , better known as Paul Kruger and affectionately known as Uncle Paul was State President of the South African Republic...

, found at the Kruger-gate, Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers and extends from north to south and from east to west.To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is...

. His most famous coin design is the pronking

Stotting

Stotting is a gait of quadrupeds, particularly gazelles , involving jumping high into the air by lifting all four feet off the ground simultaneously. This may occur during pursuit by a predator...

 springbok on all gold Kruger Rands. The springbok design was reused on the 5 shilling and 50 cent

Cent (currency)

In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....

s crowns from 1948 to 1964, the gold 1/2 Pound and 1 Pound

South African pound

In 1825, an imperial order-in-council made sterling coinage legal tender in all the British colonies. At that time, the only British colony in Southern Africa was the Cape of Good Hope Colony. As time went on, the British pound sterling and its associated subsidiary coinage became the currency of...

 coins of the 1952-60 issues, the gold 1 Rand

South African rand

The rand is the currency of South Africa. It takes its name from the Witwatersrand , the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. The rand has the symbol "R" and is subdivided into 100 cents, symbol "c"...

 and 2 Rand of the 1961-83 issues, and on the Krugerrand

Krugerrand

The Krugerrand is a South African gold coin, first minted in 1967 to help market South African gold. The coin, produced by the South African Mint, proved popular and by 1980 the Krugerrand accounted for 90% of the gold coin market. The name itself is a compound of Kruger and rand, the South...

 medal-coin issues that have been issued since 1967.

While Steynberg is famous for his huge statues of public figures, his many private works are of his most definitive works, such as his well-known statuette of the dancing Mabalel. In later life his works tended to be of a more abstract nature. He experimented with a wide variety of materials, such as lacquer, coloured glass, wire mesh and ceramic.

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