B.
Zipp by Frances Hodgkins
Collection
‘I can't tell you the horror of the Blackout and the effects on your nerves - the want of ventilation at night is very tiring - perhaps the nastiest part of it all.' - Frances Hodgkins in a letter to her brother, William.
Frances Hodgkins Zipp 1945. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1979
Frances Hodgkins was born in Dunedin on April 28, 1869, to a family of practising artists. Her father, William Matthew Hodgkins, was a watercolourist and prominent figure in Dunedin's art circles, and her elder sister, Isabel Field, nee Hodgkins, exhibited along with Frances in art societies throughout New Zealand in the 1890s.
Frances left New Zealand permanently to settle in England in 1913, and made a career for herself as a professional artist, rating among leading contemporary British artists of her time.
When war broke out in September 1939, Frances Hodgkins was 70 and nearing the end of a painting career stretching back to the early 1890s. Suddenly the quite village of Corfe Castle in Dorset, where she had her studio, was overrun with troops and heavy military traffic as the British war machine swung into action. She found it increasingly difficult to cope.
By June 1942 the effects of the heavy convoys had caused the stone roof of her studio to weaken, and part of it slide into the courtyard below.
Coastal gunfire and artillery practice rattled the large windows of her studio, and Frances worried that it would be requisitioned for troop accommodation or house refugees from the cities, as it was during the First World War.
Frances sought refuge at The Croft, the country retreat of one of her patrons, Geoffrey Gorer, in Somerset. Gorer also provided Frances with the Croft's caretaker, Annie Coggan, who with her daughter Nancy undertook domestic chores allowing Frances to continue painting.
Peace at The Croft was short-lived, however, as German bombers began flying overhead on their way to bomb towns in the north-west. In a letter to her brother, William, she commented "this new pilot horror makes us feel rather desperate, especially at nights - overhead both day and night doing their damnedest to keep one awake and guessing - you no doubt wonder why I stay? So do I."
Frances and the Coggans would often shelter under the stairs of the two-storeyed cottage at the sound of approaching aircraft. At one stage a landmine fell on a neighbouring farm, narrowly missing the Croft. In early 1941 The Croft was used to house evacuees from London, and this continued throughout the war. Frances returned to Corf Castle, visiting The Croft periodically. On one of these visits she had some clothing stolen by a family of evacuees. According to Nancy Moore (nee Coggan) it is these clothes which inspired the subject of Zipp.
The subject matter in Zipp is a still life of her stolen clothing, including a belt and shoes, heaped in a pile.
The dark sombre background in this work, and others from this period, reflect the depressing experiences that wartime Britain had on Hodgkins. Apart from the effects of constant wartime noise, there were also shortages in basic essentials, such as food, clothing, and heating.
Heating supplies were particularly difficult to acquire and led Hodgkins to abandon her studio during the winter months, as she was unable to heat it, and suffered badly from chilblains on her hands.
The war had a profound effect on her mental and physical health: even the blackout reshaped her vision of the world. Zipp was painted two years before her death in May 1947.
It was first exhibited at the Artists of Fame and Promise Exhibition held at London's Leicester Gallery in July and August, 1946. It was brought from a London collection in 1979 by former Robert McDougall Art Gallery director T. L. Rodney Wilson. From 1979 to 1981 Wilson actively sought Hodgkins' work for the gallery's collection and obtained four oil paintings and one gouache during this period.
Peter Vangioni
Related reading: A Room of One’s Own
Collection
Frances Hodgkins Zipp
Frances Hodgkins was seventy-seven years old when she painted Zipp in 1945, nearing the end of her career and life. It is one of the last paintings she completed. With its semiabstract shapes and forms set against a despairingly dark background, Zipp highlights how Frances continued to push herself as an artist even through her later years.
Seemingly random objects emerge through the gloom; some distinguisable, others abstracted beyond recognition: belts, a zip, a shoe and some clothing. These personal items belonging to the artist serve not only as a still life, but also as a kind of self-portrait. Most telling is the way they are scattered and heaped in a rumpled pile, perhaps symbolising the disorder in her life at this time.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Exhibition
A Room of One's Own
Three influential female artists united by talent, tenacity and self-belief.
Notes
Rita Angus by Leo Bensemann
This article first appeared in The Press as 'Viewing Rita Angus with Leo's eyes' on 26 May 2015
Notes
Irises by Rita Angus
This article first appeared as 'The meticulous small world of Rita Angus' in The Press on 9 December 2014.
Notes
Raise your glass (house)
Huge congratulations to Zina Swanson who has just been announced as the Francis Hodgkins Fellow for 2013.
Collection
Louise Henderson June
At a time in her career when many might have expected her to slow down or even retire, French-born Louise Henderson embarked upon one of her most ambitious creative projects. The Twelve Months distilled her impressions of her life in Aotearoa New Zealand into a dozen tall canvases, filtering the rhythms of the year through her ‘abstract poetic of nature’. Borrowing their proportions from the elegant ‘double square’ of her studio windows, they combined two important aspects of her practice: the all-seeing viewpoints and organisational principles of cubism and the ability to use colour to evoke both form and atmosphere. Often inspired by the view through her window, Henderson manipulated a complex set of variables, considering how the seasons affected the weather and landscape, the changing light and position of the sun, and the fluctuating activities, rituals and moods of people in both the city and the countryside.
In the ‘winter’ months, June and July, Henderson skilfully balanced colour, form and movement to evoke rain-laden clouds, drenched fields and cold, boisterous winds.
Collection
Louise Henderson July
At a time in her career when many might have expected her to slow down or even retire, French-born Louise Henderson embarked upon one of her most ambitious creative projects. The Twelve Months distilled her impressions of her life in Aotearoa New Zealand into a dozen tall canvases, filtering the rhythms of the year through her ‘abstract poetic of nature’. Borrowing their proportions from the elegant ‘double square’ of her studio windows, they combined two important aspects of her practice: the all-seeing viewpoints and organisational principles of cubism and the ability to use colour to evoke both form and atmosphere. Often inspired by the view through her window, Henderson manipulated a complex set of variables, considering how the seasons affected the weather and landscape, the changing light and position of the sun, and the fluctuating activities, rituals and moods of people in both the city and the countryside.
In the ‘winter’ months, June and July, Henderson skilfully balanced colour, form and movement to evoke rain-laden clouds, drenched fields and cold, boisterous winds.
Notes
People in glasshouses
A few days ago, there were lots of little bits of glass and metal strewn (in a highly systematic way) across the floor of our NG gallery space.
Collection
Frances Hodgkins Return of the River
By 1937 Frances Hodgkins had established herself as a major artist in Britain. During this period she began using gouache, which became one of her favoured mediums in the final years of her career.
This work highlights the experimental quality that gouache offered her at this time. Using an almost calligraphic technique, the paint has been applied freely and expressively using a variety of brush marks.
Hodgkins was born in Dunedin and was initially trained by her father, part-time watercolourist William Matthew Hodgkins. In 1893 she took classes with G. P. Nerli, and in 1895/96 studied at the Dunedin School of Art. Hodgkins left to study at the London Polytechnic in 1901 and in 1903 she exhibited at the Royal Academy, becoming the first New Zealander to have the honour of being ‘hung on the line’. Living in Paris between 1908 and 1912, Hodgkins taught at the Académie Colarossi, where she was the first woman on staff. She eventually settled in England, where she exhibited with many art groups and galleries, including the Lefevre Galleries in London from 1932.
Collection
Frances Hodgkins Still Life
The well-known New Zealand expatriate artist Frances Hodgkins travelled to Ibiza in October 1932, remaining on the island until July 1933. These were high times for the artist, who relished living and painting in the island’s sharp light immensely. Hodgkins kept company with fellow New Zealand painters Maude Burge, Gwen Knight and May Smith, whom she fondly referred to as “my three friends”. At this time Hodgkins painted still-life subjects out in the landscape as opposed to indoors. Everyday objects were often arranged on a table, or sometimes directly on the ground, with the Ibiza landscape extending into the distance beyond. She commented at the time, “In this clear ivory light every common object looks important and significant … things appear in stark simplicity minus all detail – nothing corked up … or hidden as in the grey, or brown, light of the north.”
(New Dawn fades, November 2018)
Collection
Frances Hodgkins Still Life with Red Jar
“You say in yr last [letter] that I will not tag on to Colonial life after staying away so long – you surely don’t expect & want me to settle down into a Maiden Aunt do you & throw up career & ambition & lose the precious ground I have gained – you are much too dear and unselfish for that I am sure. I am coming out merely to see you & Sis & the children, to be with you for a while & then to return to my work like any man of business. To make you happy I must be happy myself. I want to see you badly & feel I must come soon at no matter what sacrifice. But do realise Mother that it’s on this side of the world that my work and future career lie. I grieve sometimes that you do not understand this more.” —Frances Hodgkins, excerpt from a letter to her mother, Rachel Hodgkins, 1911
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Rita Angus Aquilegia
“I live out my own world & follow in the lives of Frances Hodgkins […] and other women painters”, wrote Rita Angus. One of these other painters was fellow Waitaha Canterbury artist Margaret Stoddart. Both Rita and Margaret developed a deep appreciation of botanical subjects in their practices, alongside their work as landscape painters. Their approach to watercolour couldn’t be more different, however: Margaret with her lively impressionistic approach contrasts with Rita’s accuracy and detail usually reserved for a botanical artist illustrating a scientific journal.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Rita Angus Irises
A keen gardener, Rita Angus painted flower studies throughout her career. During the 1940s in particular she painted some very elegant and botanically exact works such as Irises. Her flower studies allude to the symbolic meanings of flowers, a common feature of Medieval and Renaissance art. She often included flowers in her portraits to represent their associated meanings. The iris stands for faith, wisdom and hope. Angus was born in Hastings. She studied at the Canterbury College School of Art from 1927 to 1933. In 1930 she married Canterbury artist Alfred Cook and, although they separated in 1934, she signed her work ‘Rita Cook’ until 1941. She lived and worked in Christchurch until 1955 when she moved to Wellington. In 1958 Angus was awarded an Association of New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship, which allowed her to visit England and Europe.
Collection
Zina Swanson Untitled
Zina Swanson’s precise, yet poetic painted drawings call attention to the delicacy and vulnerability of nature. Plant matter, insects and other tiny objects she collected over several years take fresh life in brushstrokes that range from feathery to forensically precise. Zina’s interest in her personal – and our human – relationship with the natural world led her to imagine a strange form of cross-species rehabilitation, where wilting forms are supported, a cutting grows the feet of a bird and processed timber receives new prosthetic roots. Her latest painting recounts an early foray into collecting, when she salvaged a discarded stick so large it had to be cut into three and reassembled in her studio. In an associated poem, she wrote: Making them part of my life, by making them part of my paintings Making a special shelf for them in my studio The collection keeps growing.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Zina Swanson Untitled
Zina Swanson’s precise, yet poetic painted drawings call attention to the delicacy and vulnerability of nature. Plant matter, insects and other tiny objects she collected over several years take fresh life in brushstrokes that range from feathery to forensically precise. Zina’s interest in her personal – and our human – relationship with the natural world led her to imagine a strange form of cross-species rehabilitation, where wilting forms are supported, a cutting grows the feet of a bird and processed timber receives new prosthetic roots. Her latest painting recounts an early foray into collecting, when she salvaged a discarded stick so large it had to be cut into three and reassembled in her studio. In an associated poem, she wrote: Making them part of my life, by making them part of my paintings Making a special shelf for them in my studio The collection keeps growing.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Zina Swanson Untitled
Zina Swanson’s precise, yet poetic painted drawings call attention to the delicacy and vulnerability of nature. Plant matter, insects and other tiny objects she collected over several years take fresh life in brushstrokes that range from feathery to forensically precise. Zina’s interest in her personal – and our human – relationship with the natural world led her to imagine a strange form of cross-species rehabilitation, where wilting forms are supported, a cutting grows the feet of a bird and processed timber receives new prosthetic roots. Her latest painting recounts an early foray into collecting, when she salvaged a discarded stick so large it had to be cut into three and reassembled in her studio. In an associated poem, she wrote: Making them part of my life, by making them part of my paintings Making a special shelf for them in my studio The collection keeps growing.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Zina Swanson Untitled
Zina Swanson’s precise, yet poetic painted drawings call attention to the delicacy and vulnerability of nature. Plant matter, insects and other tiny objects she collected over several years take fresh life in brushstrokes that range from feathery to forensically precise. Zina’s interest in her personal – and our human – relationship with the natural world led her to imagine a strange form of cross-species rehabilitation, where wilting forms are supported, a cutting grows the feet of a bird and processed timber receives new prosthetic roots. Her latest painting recounts an early foray into collecting, when she salvaged a discarded stick so large it had to be cut into three and reassembled in her studio. In an associated poem, she wrote: Making them part of my life, by making them part of my paintings Making a special shelf for them in my studio The collection keeps growing.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
![Untitled [Pot Plant]](/media/cache/ac/dc/acdc8a6cbbf25cf77aeb9e67c525ce9b.jpg)
Rita Angus Untitled [Pot Plant]
“I live out my own world & follow in the lives of Frances Hodgkins […] and other women painters,” wrote Rita Angus. One of those painters was fellow Waitaha Canterbury artist Margaret Stoddart. Like Margaret, Rita developed a deep appreciation of botanical subjects in her work. Although both artists are known for their landscapes, their approach to watercolour couldn’t be more different; Margaret’s lively impressionistic approach contrasts with Rita’s work, which is rich with the detail usually reserved for a botanical artist illustrating a scientific journal.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
