"Scales attended Canterbury College School of Art and studied painting in London before returning to New Zealand in 1912. After World War I her family settled in Nelson where she worked as an orchardist, and one of the works in the Richardson Collection Lot 108 Nelson Farm Landscape [BC127] dates from these years. Like other early works, including Lot 107 Shipping Wellington Harbour [BC128] and Lot 109 Moored Yachts [BC010] it is painted in a harmonious range of low-keyed colours and demonstrates an impressionist interest in atmospheric effects."
BC128
Shipping, Wellington Harbour
Seascape. Midground, vessel anchored in still water, port side to viewer. Left, three-masted vessel partially obscured by midground ship. Two small darker shapes, one at the bow and one at the stern of the larger ship. Hills and sky form the background.
Date
c. 1920 – 1929
Object type
painting
Medium and materials
oil on canvas on board
Dimensions
220x274mm
Place Made
New Zealand
Inscriptions
LR Flora Scales
Verso framer’s label City Art, 96 Disraeli Street, Christchurch, Job No 5036
Verso Left label Flora Scales, Shipping, Wellington Harbour, Oil on canvasboard, 220 x 275, Purchased: 25/11/08, Cost: $3,500.00
Details
Provenance
Sold by auction at Dunbar Sloane, Wellington, New Zealand, Painting 19th and 20th Century, New Zealand, Australian and European Pictures, 03.03.1988, Lot 151
Sold by auction at Dunbar Sloane, Wellington, New Zealand, Sir Ivor Richardson Art Collection, 22.03.2006, Lot 107
Purchased by Scales Corporation Limited, Christchurch, New Zealand, from Ferner Galleries, New Zealand, 25.11.2008
Current Collection
Scales Corporation Limited
Current Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
General notes
Title, Shipping, Wellington Harbour, may have originated in an auctioneer’s catalogue.
Correspondence Danielle Carter, Archives, and Bill Laxon, Library Manager, New Zealand Maritime Museum Library, Auckland, New Zealand, 27.09.2019, “The painted vessel is likely, but not certain, to be a steamship. The red feature to the right of the vessel could be a funnel. Whether a steamship or a motor vessel, it could be described as a merchant ship with prominent cargo handling derricks. The vessel in the background to the left looks like a barquentine, another type of sailing ship.”
The painting illustrates the ‘V’ shape of derricks or cranes which was to become a feature of Scales’s pictorial space construction after the 1930s, such as, Bry-sur-Marne, Orchard [BC069] and Orchard With Plum Tree [2] [BC072].
References
Catalogue essay by Jill Trevelyan, The Sir Ivor Richardson Art Collection, Dunbar Sloane, Wellington, New Zealand, 2006
Acknowledgments
Photos by John Collie