Daniël Cornelis Boonzaier

Boonzaier by Moses Kottler

Daniël Cornelis Boonzaier (11 November 1865 Patatsrivier, Carnarvon, Northern Cape dist - 20 March 1950 Cape Town), was a South African cartoonist. ^[1]

Boonzaier received his first education at Carnarvon and later joined the local magistrate's office. When 16 years old he was transferred to Cape Town where he served in the Colonial Office and Orphan Chamber, remaining in civil service until 1899. The theatre appealed to him and he in turn played a few roles, produced, and worked as make-up artist. His real interest, though, lay in drawing, something which had been encouraged by a teacher while he was still at school. In Cape Town he was inspired by the work of William Howard Schröder, a cartoonist and publisher of the humorous weekly, 'The Knobkerrie'. Later he met Schröder when a work of his was accepted for publication. Boonzaier never enjoyed any formal art tuition, but instead closely studied the work of George du Maurier and Phil May of Punch fame. In 1891 he started work on a gallery of South African and foreign notables and persuaded them to sign their caricatures. This collection was not of much artistic merit, but was historically of great interest, since it included personalities such as Paul Kruger, Piet Joubert, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt, Henrik Ibsen, Leo Tolstoy, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet and Pierre Loti.

A number of newspapers, such as Cape Punch, The Telephone and The Owl, began regularly publishing his cartoons, and 1901 saw the appearance of his first book of drawings, "Owlographs:A Collection of Cape Celebrities in Caricature".

References

1. ^ Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa - 1970 (J. du P. Scholtz)

Persondata
Name	Boonzaier, Daniël Cornelis
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 November 1865
Place of birth
Date of death	20 March 1950
Place of death