BC081
Port of Naples
Seascape. Centre lower margin pale area. Midground boats with masts. Blue area with ochre touches to left and right of boats. Top third of canvas dark area, probably dockyards.
LL blue brush point F Scales
LR blue brush point 1977
Verso UC white label ink (in Patience Tennent's hand) To Philip & Viki from Aunt Lass 27/11/81. Painted on board Russian ship to N.Z. from London 1977 in Naples Port, from stern of ship, 3 sailing boats & dockyards beyond
Verso L (in artist's hand) Light RED, TURPS small, L, oil small
Private Collection
New Zealand
The verso inscription was probably dictated by the artist to her niece, Patience Tennent, 1981.
Painted while Flora Scales was a passenger on-board the SS Shota Rostaveli on her trip back to New Zealand from France in 1977.
When the SS Shota Rustaveli docked in Piraeus, Greece, Scales's niece, Diana Zaharopoulos (nee Westacott, later Mills), collected her and took her home to her flat in Athens for the night. Correspondence Diana Mills to B. de Lange, 02.11.1983, “Although Aunt Lass [Flora] seemed a little older, she still seemed the old Aunt Lass, upright and full of courage.”
This was to be the last journey Scales made between Europe and New Zealand.
Primary image taken from photographic transparency slide.