Date: 1921
Place: Finistère, Brittany, France
Media: watercolour, gouache, charcoal, pencil on paper pasted on to board
Dimensions: 256 × 320 mm
Catalogue number: 2023–1–21
Credit line: The Field Collection, Toi Mahara
This is one of five works in the Field Collection that were painted during a short stay at Douarnenez, Brittany in the summer of 1921. Frances Hodgkins wrote to her mother from the Hotel de l’Europe, Douarnenez, Finistère, Brittany on 19 May 1921 saying, ‘…I have been on the tramp for nearly a month exploring Brittany for a good spot for my summer class…We are now settled at this place—not many miles from Concarneau where I lived for so long…’ (Linda Gill, Letters of Frances Hodgkins, 1993, p353).
The paintings show the developing abstraction of Frances Hodgkins’ style. By the 1920s she was using a more stylised line and areas of colour to create an integrated pattern across the composition. This new style was too radical for New Zealand. In 1921 she wrote to her mother that ‘The reason I don’t send out more work to NZ is that it has become a bit too modern & find it very difficult to return to my earlier and more easily selling style…’ (Linda Gill, p353).
However, in a desperate attempt to raise some money Frances Hodgkins sent these five works to New Zealand and in September 1921 she wrote to Isabel Field, ‘…I wonder if the sketches have turned up safely and [if] there will be any sale for them…Do be very frank and honest with me and tell me what people say about them…’ (Linda Gill, p355).
(Sourced from notes by Avenal McKinnon, Frances Hodgkins, the link with Kapiti: The Field Collection, Mahara Gallery, 2000).
Terms of use. You may download this image for personal or educational use.
