Woman Diving

Artist: Dorothy Kate Richmond (1861—1935)
Date: 1927
Place: Wellington
Media: watercolour and pencil on paper pasted on to board
Dimensions: 176 × 126 mm
Catalogue number: 2023–1–44
Credit line: The Field Collection, Toi Mahara

Woman diving 1927 by Dorothy Kate Richmond was a late acquisition to the Field family’s art collection.

D K Richmond was one of Frances Hodgkins’ closest friends for many years. Her father James Crowe Richmond and William Mathew Hodgkins knew each other, but the two women did not meet until 1901 when they both joined the sketching class in Normandy led by Norman Garstin (1847–1926). In her girlhood D K Richmond had been taken on a grand tour of Europe. She had also spent two years studying at the Slade where she won a scholarship.

Within a short time of meeting her, Frances Hodgkins wrote, ‘Miss R. has decided not to go to England so we shall not lose sight of each other even for a few weeks. I have grown so fond of her, I don’t know how I am ever going to let her go, she is one of those people whom you want always with you.’ (Linda Gill, Letters of Frances Hodgkins 1993, p94).

While admiring her as ‘the dearest piece of perfection’ Frances Hodgkins had reservations about her painting which although showed ‘nice taste and judgement’ was ‘lacking in fire and originality.’ (Linda Gill, p104). By January 1902 she had amended this opinion: ‘I think she has gone ahead in leaps and bounds and is painting a great deal now in watercolour and very cleverly too.’ (Linda Gill, p112).

Having shared classes together, Frances Hodgkins and D K Richmond travelled through France, Italy, England and The Netherlands returning together to New Zealand on the ship ‘Ophir’. They held a joint exhibition at the McGregor Wright Gallery in 1904 and shared a studio in Bowen Street for two years. They stayed near the Fields in Paraparaumu and made a sketching trip to Rotorua together. When they parted in 1906—Frances Hodgkins to return to Europe and D K Richmond to remain in Wellington to teach—they continued to correspond. (Sourced from notes by Avenal McKinnon, Frances Hodgkins, the link with Kapiti: The Field Collection, Mahara Gallery, 2000).