"In 1962, Scales painted a landscape in Bry-sur-Marne [Bry-sur-Marne [1] [BC044]] in which she all but abandons figuration: greens, blue and yellows, touched with pink and hints of violet, swirl and eddy on the surface of the canvas in hazy strokes."
BC044
Bry-sur-Marne
[1]
A non-representational rural landscape with a suggestion of trees and houses. Right of centre white roughly circular shape, round pink area to its left. Two dark green oval areas to right midground suggest trees. Left hand oval shape has small touches of red paint at right side. Above the circular shapes are two horizontal, roughly rectangular, pale areas. Suggestion of path from lower left to centre and the bars of perhaps a gate or fence.
Date
1962
Object type
painting
Medium and materials
oil on unstretched prepared canvas
Dimensions
270x340mm
Place Made
Bry-sur-Marne, France
Inscriptions
LL green/brown brush point Scales
LR ochre brush point H Scales 1962
Verso handwritten A T L Scales, Helen Flora Bry-sur-Marne ca 1966 (crossed out) [1962] Oil 27 x 34 cms A262/27
Verso UR handwritten 92164 1/2 12 M20
Details
Provenance
Donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand by H. F. V. Scales, 1979
Condition Report
This is an unstretched canvas. Pinholes evident top and bottom edges of canvas.
Copyright Licence
Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Reference no. A-262-027
Current Collection
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
Current Location
Wellington, New Zealand
General notes
Title supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979.
Christiane Devèze, Boris Kalachnikoff’s wife, in conversations with Marc Bonamie, Paris, France, 2016, “Flora loved to paint outdoors - nature, landscapes - in sunlight. She often drew and painted animals, especially our dogs and cats, and was very happy painting the plum trees in full bloom in our garden at Bry-Sur-Marne. Boris would often walk with her into the countryside to paint the farmland and houses in earlier days. We would sometimes go together to his parents' country house in Genevieve St Bois, to Provence where my parents lived, or to Bleymard in the Lozère District where my family has a holiday house. We all drew and painted happily, side by side, discussing our work all the time, but keeping our own different styles during these painting holidays.” – ‘Christiane Devezes: Conversations and Letters II’, Flora Scales, The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, New Zealand, 2018
References