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It was 100 years ago today...
Behind the scenes
There are not many works in Christchurch Art Gallery's collection that can be pin-pointed to the exact date in which they were completed but Petrus van der Velden's Self-portrait with Otira Gorge is one and it was completed exactly 100 years ago today.
This wonderful charcoal self-portrait by van der Velden was completed just three weeks prior to his death in Auckland on 11 November 1913. What's interesting about this work is the way the artist portrays himself confidently in front of one of his last paintings, Otira Gorge (1912) which is in Auckland Art Gallery's collection. Standing proudly before his Otira painting, paint brushes in hand, van der Velden readily identifies his Otira Gorge paintings as one of his greatest achievements and to be perfectly honest I for one couldn't argue with the guy. Spending twelve or so days regularly visiting the Christchurch Art Gallery's exhibition Van der Velden: Otira before the earthquakes forced its closure certainly drove home the point that the van der Velden's Otira series are an extraordinary body of work.
Te Papa are including a van der Velden focus in their new permanet collection hang, nga toi arts Te Papa, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the artist's death so if you are in Wellington or passing through make sure you pay a visit.
Petrus van der Velden, (1837-1913) Self Portrait with Otira background (1913), charcoal. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, bequeathed by Miss D. C. Bates, 1983.
Related
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Mountain Stream, Otira Gorge
The Rotterdam-born Petrus van der Velden arrived in New Zealand in 1890. Following his first visit to Otira Gorge in January 1891, he became engrossed with this subject, and painted its powerful, surging torrents many times over the next two years.
This painting was purchased by Gilbert Anderson, a leader in New Zealand’s frozen meat industry, also involved with the Canterbury Society of Arts. Anderson sold it to the Society in 1912; it was purchased from them in 1996 through the Community Trust and Christchurch Art Gallery Trust.
(Treasury: A Generous Legacy, 18 December 2015 – 27 November 2016)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Jacksons, Otira
Petrus van der Velden established a successful reputation as a painter in the Hague during the 1870s and 1880s. It therefore is astounding that he gave his career away in 1890 and sailed with his family halfway round the world to Christchurch. Holland’s loss was New Zealand’s gain, however, and within a short time of his arrival van der Velden travelled to the mountainous Otira region, where he painted some of the most important works of his career. He was captivated by the untouched beauty and ruggedness of a landscape that was so inherently different to what he had known in Holland. He began producing a series of paintings based on a mountain stream at Otira and on his second visit to the region in 1893 painted this small creek at Jacksons just to the west of Otira.
(March 2018)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River
“For the first three days I did nothing at all but just looked, it took my breath away.” —Petrus van der Velden on his first visit to Ōtira.
Van der Velden sensed something about Ōtira that inspired him to avoid the picturesque in favour of something more powerful, and works like Mount Rolleston and the Otira River contain a great visual energy. The mountains seem to wedge into the landscape, their softness suggests a misty or rainy wind and emphasises the intense silvery light breaking the dauntingly overcast sky. A hint of blue is either a speck of hope or the last gasp of light before the storm completely envelops the land and raging river below.
(Endless Light, 29 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Self Portrait with Otira background
Van der Velden: Otira, 11-22 February 2011
In this charcoal self-portait, completed just three weeks before his death, van der Velden remains emotionally in tune with the region and his earlier experiences as he pays modest homage to his Otira series. The artist portrays himself, paintbrushes in hand, standing in front of his 1912 painting Otira Gorge, proclaiming to the world the importance of his Otira paintings to him as an artist.