FRANCES HODGKINS

She travelled between New Zealand and Europe from 1901 to 1913, being exposed to British and French impressionist ‘plein-air’ painting, and developing an interest in light, movement and colour.

Returning to England and France in 1913, her work increasingly revealed elements of European modernism in portrait and still life paintings particularly influenced by the work of Edouard Vulliard and Pierre Bonnard. From 1929 until 1934, Hodgkins belonged to the English avant-garde group, The Seven and Five Society, establishing a reputation as a leading contemporary British artist. A series of watercolours and gouache paintings of still life studies in ambiguous, symbolic landscapes received critical acclaim when exhibited in London through the 1930s.

Hodgkins was the subject of a Penguin Modern Painters monograph in 1947 and posthumously achieved prominence in New Zealand in the late 1950s. Works are held in all major art museums in New Zealand and in the Tate Gallery, London.