BC034
A Friend's Room in a Village near Paris
Interior scene. Green seating with cushions. Orangey-pink fabric over wooden frame of deck chair. Rust coloured element at right framing edge.
LL ochre brush point Scales
LL of centre black brush point Scales
UR (not in artist's hand) pencil 79-205 A262 30
Centre right edge of canvas pencil (not in artist's hand) Country Cottage, Bry-sur-Marne, ca1959
Verso UL ink 25
Verso UR pencil 6
Verso circular yellow sticker pencil c1958 ink 5
Verso Centre (not in artist's hand) brown crayon Turnbill [sic]
Donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand by H. F. V. Scales, 1979
Unstretched and unframed canvas. Previously stretched. Staple holes and creases evident around all edges.
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
First title and date supplied by the artist for Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand, exhibition, Helen F V Scales, 1975-1976. Listed as artwork no. 6 in this exhibition.
Second title and date supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979.
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand documentation notes, "An interior with a green sofa with cushions and a bright orange deck chair."
Flora Scales in conversation with M. de Lange, 1983, “This room was possibly Bobby’s [Boris Kalachnikoff] studio.”
This is the only painting of an interior scene by Scales known to date.
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.
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.”
