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For a while, the
future of this important link with the past was uncertain. But a
splendid new use for it was found as a result of the mediation of Lady
Florence Phillips, wife of "Rand baron" Sir Lionel Phillips, to whose
initiatives the country owes a number of fine cultural institutions.
It was she who had prompted the British art collector Hugh (later Sir
Hugh) Lane to assemble a collection of Netherlandish old master
paintings that could one day form the nucleus of an art museum in
South Africa. And when a new use was sought for Cape Town's Old Town
House, it was she who found her friend Max (later Sir Max) Michaelis
prepared to purchase the Lane collection and present it to the South
African Nation in 1914. Thus he could show "his gratitude for the many
happy and prosperous years ... spent in this beautiful country". Sir Max Michaelis, whose bronze bust by sculptor
Moses Kottler can be seen over the fountain in the courtyard,
was a British-born Johannesburg businessman. The Michaelis
Collection is not the only institution that benefited from
his generosity. His name is also associated with libraries,
a hospital and with the Michaelis School of Fine Art. The City of Cape Town responded
to Sir Max's gift by making available the Old Town House,
and present it to the Union Government. The architect J.M.
Solomon was commissioned to restore the building. He adapted
its interior to its new function and gave it the appearance
of a 17th century Dutch guild-hall, though leaving
the exterior largely as it was first built. The magnificent
stairway and the panelled and beamed Frans Hals Room upstairs
– once the home of the City Council – are especially
worthy as a setting for the fine collection on its walls.
The new art museum – the first in Cape Town – was
opened to the public in 1916. |
