St Tropez

Title supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979.

Date given by artist at the time of donation was 1964, as recorded in the collection record at Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand. This date does not relate to the inscribed dates, the subject matter or the style.

Both inscribed dates are difficult to decipher accurately. Lower left appears to read 38 [1938] and is assumed the more accurate as it has been inscribed at the time of signing. The subject matter is also similar to that of Greniar [Graniers], St Tropez, Southern France [BC024] which was dated 1939 by the artist. Lower right 1932 possibly added retrospectively.

A black and white photograph of this work is included in an artist’s file dedicated to Flora Scales at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, reference Scales, Helen Flora Victoria, 1887-1985, Artist file prints [see Related images 1-2]. The file contains black and white photographs on card of 26 of the artworks in the Alexander Turnbull collection and one not held in the collection [Untitled [Sand Dunes] [BC011]].

Each card measures 167 x 216mm and the image size varies. Each card has handwritten reference notes along the top detailing artist name, title, year, size, and reference number. Further, on the back of each card are handwritten annotations with information including media, reference numbers and location within the physical collection. Date given on this card is [1934?].

The cards in this file are undated. Correspondence B. de Lange and Kimberley Stephenson, Research Librarian Pictorial, Alexander Turnbull Library, September 2025, notes, “Neither the associated copy negatives nor the file prints are dated but based on notes I found in the negative register one group (intermittent between 1/2-092380-F and 1/2-092705-F) was in existence by May 1979, while a second group (intermittent between 1/2-162480-F to 1/2-162510-F) had been created by December 1986. Given most of the paintings entered the collection in 1979, this does suggest that the first group shows the works soon after they were accessioned. The second group appears to have been taken during reframing or conservation treatment as many are shown without their stretchers.”

It is possible that this painting was brought back to New Zealand by Flora Scales's sister, Mrs Marjorie Hamersley, after she and her husband had visited Scales in St Tropez in 1939 following the wedding of her daughter, Patience, in Malta.

This assumption is based on the fact that this painting, along with Mediterranean Village [BC019], Untitled [Basilica and Lighthouse, St Tropez] [BC020], Basilica and Lighthouse, St Tropez, Southern France [BC021], St Tropez [BC022] and Greniar [Graniers], St Tropez, Southern France [BC024], was safely in New Zealand by 1942 when Scales discovered the loss of potentially hundreds of artworks stored in Paris, plundered by Nazis.

This is a view over Plage des Graniers, 1km from the old town of St Tropez, France, across the Baie des Canebiers to the Cap St Pierre. Closely related to Greniar [Graniers], St Tropez, Southern France [BC024].