Donkey cart

A pair of donkeys hitched to a wooden cart stand in an arid, sunlit landscape dotted with sparse vegetation and distant hills. Figures attend to the animals in this scene of rural labour, rendered with de Beer’s characteristic attention to atmospheric detail and the particularities of the moment. The composition balances the animals centrally against the expansive terrain, whilst warm ochres and dusty tones convey the heat and stillness of the setting. De Beer became renowned for his paintings of such everyday subjects, which he executes with the precision of one deeply familiar with his subject matter.