“Two other New Zealanders, Gwen Knight and Flora Scales, who were born in Wellington and Lower Hutt respectively, joined up with Hodgkins in 1931 at St Tropez, and both later had a connection with Hans Hofmann. Hodgkins introduced Knight to the work of the German artist, who took her on as a pupil in Munich, and she later urged Scales to enrol at his School of Art. Scales studied Hofmann’s principles of modernism, which discouraged an dependence on naturalistic perspective and representation and, upon her return to New Zealand in 1934, she met and inspired Toss Woollaston with the ideas she has absorbed in Europe. Recognised as a pioneer, in 1975 Scales was given a solo exhibition at the Auckland City Art Gallery, arranged by Colin McCahon (who also wrote the catalogue Foreword). She was represented in Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle with an exquisite watercolour from the 1920s, of shipping in Wellington Harbour which displayed the early influence of Dorothy Kate Richmond and was in contrast to the broader brushstrokes that would distinguish her increasingly abstract landscapes in the 1950s.”
BC122
Eastern Extension Cable Company's Ship "Patrol" in Wellington Harbour
Seascape. Moored ship, starboard side parallel to horizontal edges of the support showing red plimsoll line. Background waterside buildings and hills. Three small yachts moored nearby.
LL pencil Flora Scales (F reversed)
Verso printed label Eastern Extension Cable Company's Ship "Patrol" in Wellington Harbour Early 1920s (since reframed)
Sold by auction at Dunbar Sloane, Wellington, New Zealand, Fine and Applied Arts, 05.09.2019, Lot 267
Private Collection
Painting depicts CS Patrol moored in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. Mount Kaukau, Wellington, can be identified in the background.
As reported by the Evening Post, 10 March 1924, ‘Cable boat expected’, “The Eastern Extension Cable Company’s steamer “Patrol”, which has been engaged in cable work off Farewell Spit, is expected at Wellington tomorrow [Tuesday 11 March]. The vessel has about 40 miles of cable to land here.”
As reported by Otago Daily Times, 13 March 1924, ‘Cable Steamer “Patrol”’, “The Eastern Extension Cable Company’s steamer “Patrol”, which has been engaged in cable work off Farewell Spit, arrived at Wellington on Tuesday [11th March]. The vessel has about 40 miles of cable to land at Wellington.”
CS Patrol was sold for scrap in 1933.
Signature similar to Untitled [Landscape with Curved Road and Trees] [BC121].
Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle, Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, pg 35 (colour)
‘A Sense of Time, Place and Hope: Frances Hodgkins and her Circle’ by Richard Wolfe, Art New Zealand, issue 178, 2021, pg 99
Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle, Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, pp 34-35
‘A Sense of Time, Place and Hope: Frances Hodgkins and her Circle’ by Richard Wolfe, Art New Zealand, issue 178, 2021, pp 96-99
Photos courtesy Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland, New Zealand, 2020
