“The edge of a table, on it, sit two oranges
Nestling into the inner sun
A glow”
BC067
Still Life, London
[1]
Still life. Two spherical orange shapes and a diagonal streak of blue mid left to upper right. Irregular shape of magenta at left abuts the broken diagonal edge of the white area. An irregular ochre area at top of painting. Lower right two small red shapes.
Other title(s)
Still Life with Oranges
Date
c. 1970
1973
Object type
painting
Medium and materials
oil on canvas
Dimensions
251x322mm
Place Made
London, England
Inscriptions
Verso yellow gallery label pencil 1973 FS
Details
Provenance
Donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand by H. F. V. Scales, 1979
Condition Report
Unstretched and unframed canvas. Pinholes evident upper corners of canvas.
Copyright Licence
Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Reference no. A-262-028
Current Collection
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
Current Location
Wellington, New Zealand
General notes
First title and provisional date supplied by the artist for Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand, exhibition, Helen F V Scales, 1975-1976. Listed as artwork no. 42 in this exhibition.
Second title and date supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979.
Scales was in New Zealand from July 1972 until late 1976, making the date c1970 more likely.
Alexander Turnbull Library documentation notes, “The blue streak across the centre is the knife the artist used to peel her oranges.” Information supplied by the artist at time of donation, 1979.
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 overleaf of this card notes, "blue knife Flora Scales used to peel her oranges.”
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.”
Related work
References
‘Somebody and Somebody and Somebody Else’s Elbow: Three versions of a relationship’ by Ruth Buchanan, written for florascales.com, 2022
‘Becoming Modern: The paintings of Flora Scales’ by Jennifer Higgie, written for florascales.com, 2022
"For Scales, like so many avant-garde artists of the 20th century, the studio was a laboratory: a bowl of fruit or a vase of flowers, far more than the sum of their parts, were objects to experiment with. Around 1970, in her mid-80s, she painted one of her most extraordinary works, Still Life with Oranges [Still Life, London [1] [BC067]]. It’s a picture that’s as fresh today as the day she created it: the fruit seems to float, unconstrained, across a riotously colourful ground: a rough crimson triangle, smears of green below a blazing yellow and ochre sky."
Related images
