BC091
Group of Trees, Rotorua
Horizontal bands of green and brown at lower margin. Central group of trees, brown mass of trunks. Umbrella shaped canopy of tree, blue on right and yellow/green on left divided by vertical blue brushstrokes. Area of green middle right margin.
Verso Upper Centre label 340
Verso UL label artwork details
Verso Lower Centre (not in artist's hand) pencil 397
Donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, by H. F. V. Scales, 1979
Horizontal scratch across centre canvas
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
Title and date supplied by artist at time of donation, 1979.
Date confirms that this work was painted while Scales was a resident in the Rotorua Masonic Village, New Zealand, from 26 October 1978 until just before her death in January 1985.
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand documentation notes, "A semi-representational landscape, looking towards a group of trees in the middle distance."
Two black and white photographs of this work are 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 2-5]. 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.” It is assumed that a card was made for this work at both dates, resulting in two copies noting similar information.
