Although the works are represented in all the major galleries and numerous private collections in South Africa, they were relatively little known outside art circles in South Africa, until the year 2000, when the Standard Bank sponsored The Everard Phenomenon Exhibition, which consisted of 58 major works and has been the most comprehensive exhibition to date.

"Their works of the Eastern Transvaal, with unique and independent vision, expressed the mysteries which lay beneath as well as above the surface of the land. "
Extract by Alan Crump - Everard Phenomenon exhibition catalogue, 2000.

" I have just returned from a sortie in the United States and England……and can easily put this exhibition in the same category as the display in the National Museum of Women in the Arts Gallery in Washington and vouch that it would draw the same crowds." Extract from an article written by Juliet Armstrong in The Natal Witness. Nov 2000.

The research on the Everard Group was started by Frieda Harmsen in her 1980 publication The Women of Bonnefoi - the Story of the Everard Group (Published by J.L van Schaik, ISBN 0627011152)
(Everard Group web site)

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First Generation: At the beginning of the matriarchal line, are the two sisters Edith and Bertha King:

Edith Mary King (1871-1962)
A painter of landscapes, still life and close-ups of plants and rocky pools. She worked mainly in watercolour and also produced a number of linocuts and clay pots. Edith was an art teacher, headmistress and poet.

Bertha Everard (b. King) (1873-1965)
A painter of landscapes, with a strong use of line and colour. She painted a number of portraits, and in 1926 painted the Delville Wood series of war devastated landscapes.She worked mainly in Oil.
Bertha also studied music in Vienna 1891-1893, was an art teacher, designed and built churches and her Bonnefoi home in Mpumalanga. She was also a farmer and did mission work.

Second Generation: Bertha married Charles Joseph Everard (1853-1946). They had three children Ruth, Rosamund and Sebastian.

Ruth Everard Haden (b. Everard) (1904-1992)
A painter of landscapes, particularly of Mpumalanga, seascapes of the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, portraits, figures, and of religious scenes. She worked in oil, watercolour and produced a number of linocuts.
Ruth studied music and literature, and was a farmer and horse breeder.

Rosamund Everard Steenkamp (b. Everard) (1907-1946)
A painter of Mpumalanga landscapes, and a number of still life paintings. She worked mainly in Oil. She had no formal art training and learned to paint from her mother. Having studied piano and violin in Paris she became a talented musician. Later she practised farming and then took up flying. She became a qualified pilot and joined the South African Force and served in the Second World War. She was also a formidable competitor in equestrian events and a qualified senior judge of cattle

Third Generation: Ruth married William Denholm Haden in 1929. They had two children: Bryan and Leonora. Leonora followed in the family tradition of painters while Bryan is a well known and accomplished potter in Cape Town.

Leonora Everard Leigh (b. Haden) (1937- )
A painter of landscapes, still life, figures, interiors and seascapes. She works in oil, watercolour and pastel. Apart from her art, Leonora has been a mother of four children, an art teacher, and managed the family farm. She has also travelled extensively.

Fourth Generation: Leonora married Derek Milton Leigh (1940-1993) in 1963. Derek became senior art lecturer in the Fine Arts Depertment, University of Natal and achieved recognition independently as a painter. They produced the fourth generation of Everards: Alana (Art Teacher and Artist), Nichola (Artist), Stephen (1969-1997) and Andrea (Architect).

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