THE STORY OF THE EVERARD GROUP

The Women of Bonnefoi, pronounced bonnie-foi, were Bertha Everard, her sister Edith Luise Mary King, and Bertha’s daughters Ruth and Rosamund King Everard. Collectively they are know in South African art history as The Everard Group, and are remembered for their bold, colourful depictions of the Eastern Transvaal landscape. The ladies were, however, not only artists Edith the eldest, was an eminent educationalist, and for many years principal of the Eunice girls School in Bloemfontein. She was also a poet whose verses are included in several South African anthologies. Bertha, married to storekeeper and landowner Charles Everard, developed the various farms into profitable concerns and dedicated herself to mission work among her black labourers. She also designed and actively built several churches, one of them the charming Anglican church in Carolina. Ruth farmed, and became well known as a breeder of racehorses. Rosamund was, perhaps the most versatile of all, musician, farmer, cattle judge and aviatrix. In the thirties she was the qualified flying instructor in Carolina and Ermelo, during the Second World War she flew for the shuttle service and she was the first woman ever to have piloted a jet aircraft.

In this book the art of the Everard Group is closely examined and the history of the women is reconstructed largely from the Everard correspondence which was found in an old wagon chest on the farm.