Spring Catalogue Exhibition 2009
Frances Hodgkins
Winter Landscape, c. 1935-36
pencil, charcoal, watercolour and gouache on paper, 505 x 715 mm
Signed lower right: Frances Hodgkins
Exhibited: New Paintings and Watercolours, The Lefevre Galleries, London. 1937
Provenance: Private Collection, United Kingdom.
Bold and lyrical watercolours of still lifes and landscapes earned Frances Hodgkins the reputation as one of the most remarkable woman painters of her time. Hodgkins is now one of New Zealand's most celebrated artists and recognised as a leading artist of British Modernism.
Hodgkins spent most of her adult life in Europe although she maintained strong connections with New Zealand until her death in 1947. She was based in London from 1934 to 36 but made frequent visits to de Mar near Barcelona in Spain during which she produced some of her most memorable landscapes. It is likely that Winter Landscape (c. 1935-36) was executed during a visit to Spain in the winter of 1935-36 as it relates strongly in subject, style and colour to Road to Barcelona (1935).
Around this time Hodgkins began to use gouache which enabled her to combine the opacity of oil paint with the fluidity of watercolour and subsequently became her favourite medium. Her interest also expanded around this time to include the possibilities of still life painting and she became particularly interested in random objects found naturally, rather than by arrangement, in the landscape.
Her visits to Spain also gave her the opportunity to view Picasso's work which was of great influence and can be seen in the angular and geometric distortions of elements of her landscapes. Her use of sharp contrast and high-key colouring show an aptitude for modulating her painting style in response to local conditions. AJ
