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THE GREEN ROOM
The bedroom leading from the sitting room is overpowered by a single colour, green. Most of the walls and the ceiling are painted in
different shades of this colour with chartreuse dominating. A large pane of green glass was installed between this room and the long
bedroom along with the panes in the door leading outside. Stepping into the emerald-bathed room invokes calm – a verdant oasis in
sharp contrast to the harsh sun-beaten landscape of the Karoo.
There are two beds, one of which has an extension to make room for a longer mattress, reportedly to accommodate Johannes
Hattingh, a married man with whom Helen conducted a relationship for decades, as he was very tall. Hattingh helped with some of
the building work in the house. Mirrors are used to the greatest effect here. Among the seven mirrors is one of a series shaped to
resemble a heart and a hand-mirror. Helen reportedly had one of her own hand-mirrors copied and enlarged. The top pane of the clear
glass window features another green sun similar to the pair in the dining room.
On the floor next to the door is a disturbing hide-covered figure with one human foot and one cloven hoof. According to her long-time
collaborator Koos Malgas, this was the only piece Helen made herself and she referred to it as her little devil. It has been suggested
that the deformed feet of the figure might be a projection of Helen’s embarrassment with her own feet as both her little toes were
amputated in an operation. Another theory is that the figure might represent the two abortions Helen openly admitted to having
undergone. She confided in friends that she was afraid her children would be born with horns and cloven hoofs.
According to Susan Imrie Ross’ in-depth study of the Owl House, this room has the most pictures on the walls. In addition to
family photographs, another reproduction of the Mona Lisa appears along with Psyche and Eros. There are a number of Victorian
reproductions, some captioned with lines of poetry.
This is an extract from the first of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. The poem deals with the intense
loneliness and sense of impending death Barrett Browning experienced due to her ill health and the surprise she experienced when
she famously fell in love with her husband Robert Browning at this time.The sonnets are among the most well-known love poems of
the Victorian age.
VEILED PRAYING GIRL
Holy Week in Seville: an Andalusian Girl
inspired with the Spirit of Semana Santa.
Celebrated during the last week of Lent
in many Catholic countries, Holy Week
features processions depicting the
Passion of Christ. For someone from an
austere Afrikaner Calvinist background, a
festival of this nature would have rivalled
the exoticism of the orient.
130 FOR THE LOVE OF LIGHT
FOR THE LOVE OF LIGHT 131