St Tropez

Catalogue

Landscape viewed from above left. Body of water at left. Lower right two posts tilt to right margin. Right side of canvas merged buildings and vegetation. Centre curved beach and rock outcrop far side of bay. Distant promontory extends towards left margin. Sunrise over promontory.

Date

1932

1938

Object type

painting

Medium and materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

307x358mm

Place Made

St Tropez, France

Inscriptions

LL brown brush point Scales 38

LR green brush point 1932

Verso UL (not in artist's hand) pencil A265 26

Verso UL (not in artist's hand) pencil St Tropez (barely legible)

Verso UL (not in artist's hand) ink 8

Verso UR (not in artist's hand) pencil 79-201

Verso Centre (not in artist's hand) brown crayon Turnbill [sic]

Provenance

Donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand by H. F. V. Scales, 1979

Condition Report

Unstretched and unframed canvas. Pinhole evident UR corner.

Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Reference no. A-262-026

Current Collection

Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand

Current Location

Wellington, New Zealand

Keywords

landscape format landscape seascape oil painting buildings trees Mediterranean St Tropez France middle years Plage des Graniers path posts plants

Title and date supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979. Date given by artist at the time of donation was 1964. Both inscribed dates are difficult to decipher accurately. Lower Left 38 [1938] possibly the more accurate as it has been inscribed at the time of signing. Lower Right 1932 possibly added retrospectively.

It is possible that this painting was brought back to New Zealand by Flora Scales's sister, Mrs Marjorie Hamersley, when she and her husband visited Scales in St Tropez in 1939 after 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].