Collection Articles - Painting
The Satara Player by Petrus van der Velden
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Petrus van der Velden
The Satara Player, 1894
Oil on canvas
Miss Marjorie Bassett Bequest, 1964
69/201 |
Things are not always what they seem. What looks like the result
of an artistic foray into exotic lands is, in fact, an 1894 portrait
of a Christchurch busker who posed in the studio of Petrus van
der Velden.
On the surface, Petrus van der Velden’s painting appears
as an evocative 19th century image of the exotic east – a
Moorish musician painted in some heat-drenched Moroccan souk or
a street called straight from somewhere east of Suez. Filled with
sun and tinged with mystery, the Dutch painter’s proud musician
symbolises a Victorian fascination with the Orient.
In art, all is not what it sometimes seems. In real life the “Arab”
street artist was a Cathedral Square busker suitably costumed
in scarves and bernous and posing in the colder light of a Durham
Street artist’s studio.
Van der Velden probably sketched similar musicians in Egypt and
Aden during his voyage to New Zealand in 1890. When he painted
this portrait in 1894 he employed the Christchurch street musician,
suitably dressed in Arab costume, to complete his only known painting
of an Oriental subject.
The year before he painted The Satara Player, Van der Velden
had established two studios behind his Durham Street home where
he held classes for students in one and painted in the second.
By 1894, he was struggling financially. Unable to afford a suitable
length of canvas for The Satara Player he had two spare lengths
of canvas sewn together by a Lyttelton sailmaker. More than a
century later, the uneven surface where the two sections were
joined can still be seen towards the base of the work.
The Satara Player was first exhibited, with a price tag of £100
at the Canterbury Society of Arts Annual Exhibition in March 1894.
Its exotic nature was immediately popular among visitors. The
Lyttelton Times reviewer commented that it “would attract
attention in any exhibition and is full of fine work which cannot
be too highly praised”, while The Press recommended the picture
to young artists as a study of colour and figure painting with
the details “most artistically painted”.
Despite this critical acclaim, the Canterbury Society of Arts
failed to raise the necessary funds to purchase the painting.
Two years later, disillusioned and in poverty, Van der Velden
sold off his possessions intending to leave Christchurch.
His supporters rallied around him, organising an art union of
his works to raise money for the struggling artist. The Satara
Player was second prize in a pool of seven paintings. Van
der Velden took 100 unsold tickets for himself – subsequently
drawing out the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth prizes
and creating immediate controversy. The notoriously prickly Dutchman
then declined to present the paintings he won to the Society of
Arts but did remain in Canterbury for two more years.
The Satara Player was eventually bought by one of his patrons
and student, William Bassett.
In 1964 it was bequeathed to the former Robert McDougall Art Gallery
by his daughter, Majorie Bassett.
Peter Vangioni
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