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Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

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The Catalogue for the coming "The Connoisseurs Art Collection Auction"

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Page 1: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

1

www.watsonsauctions.com

The

Co

nn

oisse

urs A

rt Co

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tion

2011

Page 2: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

Auction

Thursday 11 August 2011

Commencing at 7pm

The George Hotel

50 Park Terrace

Christchurch

New Zealand

Page 3: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

Viewing

Watson’s Gallery

2 Oxley Ave

St Albans

Christchurch

p 03 366 0236

Opening Preview

Thur, 4 August, 6:30pm

Fri 5 10am - 6pm

Sun 7 1pm - 3pm

Mon 8 10am - 5pm

Tue 9 10am - 5pm

Wed 10 10am - 7pm

Thur No Viewing

Private viewing by appointment only

Contacts for this auction

Toby Macalister

e [email protected]

c 021 925 333

Jacqueline Ballard

e [email protected]

c 027 295 5735

Please Note

A buyer’s premium of 15% will be charged on all

items in this auction.

GST (15%) is payable on the buyer’s premium.

Totalling 17.25%

Page 4: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

ForewordIn 1947 the eminent modernist architect

Mies van der Rohe made his famous statement

“Less is More”, words that could aptly be

applied to the enticing selection in this sale.

Whilst comprising just 25 works of varied media

by 18 different artists the choice includes an

array of quality works. The selection is all the

more remarkable when it is considered that

there is a representation from almost every

decade since the beginning of the nineteenth

century to the present. However it is also

very much a Canterbury oriented sale and

contains no fewer than 13 works by the finest

Canterbury artists of both local and national

significance. Artists like; W A. Sutton,

Doris Lusk, Rudolf Gopas, M T. Woollaston,

Michael Eaton, Trevor Moffitt and Quentin

MacFarlane. Many of the works in the

catalogue by these artists date from the 1960s

which is one of the most fertile, and sought

after, periods in New Zealand art. It is a lineup to

satisfy all tastes.

As with most art sales, works have been mainly

sourced from private collections but there is

also a noteworthy suite of etchings by the doyen

printmaker Barry Cleavin being offered out

of the corporate collection of Buddle Findlay.

This suite from the ‘Allegations’ series was also

published as a book in 1988 and is one of the

most impressive by this artist.

Among the works prominent from private

collectors are several that once belonged to the

late Dame Jean Herbison (1923 -2007) and

her sister Ruth. Dame Jean had an illustrious

career in education spanning many decades

took a keen interest in contemporary

Canterbury artists.

In contrast some of the earliest works in this

sale come from the collection of Mt Cook

Station, which was established by the Burnett

family in 1864.

Of importance among the works offered

from this collection is statuary after Bertel

Thorvalden and Antonia Canova, two of the

most acclaimed European neoclassical sculptors

of the early 19th century. Of equal importance

from this collection is an historically significant

watercolour by the colonial New Zealand artist

William Henry Raworth. Despite the strength of

New Zealand content two special works by

arguably Europe’s most celebrated 20th

century designer, Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) ,

stand out. Erté, whose career extended over

more than seven decades, also illustrated for

Harpers Bazaar from 1915 to 1937.

Between the two World Wars when Erté’s

career was at its height he designed costumes,

jewellery and sets for many of the most

important ballet, theatre and film productions

of his time.

Even though Christchurch has experienced

almost 12 months of continuous natural disaster

the enthusiasm that Cantabrians have for

the arts has not been daunted. The period of

enforced recess the art community has gone

through recently has offered time to reflect on

how rich the heritage of art and artists in our

region has been, and still continues to be.

Over the past two decades Canterbury has

certainly lost many of its major twentieth

century artists, several of whom are

represented in the present sale, although with

their passing others have taken their place.

Every year a new crop of graduates emerge

from the University of Canterbury School of

Fine Arts and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute

of Technology, and whilst not all will become

major artists, it all bodes well for the future.

Page 5: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

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Contents

2

Auction Information

3Viewing

4Foreword

6

Coming Auctions

8The Connoisseurs Art Collection Lots 1 - 25 Featuring

William A Sutton

William Henry Raworth

Doris Lusk

Frances Hodgkins

Trevor Moffitt

Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

49

Artist Index 50Terms and Conditions

Page 6: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

the dame jean herbison collection of applied arts

Featuring:

Castle, Blumhardt, Smisek, Holland, Valentine, Fisher, Brickell, Stichbury.

spring

Page 7: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

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summer

coming auctions

veteran, vintage, sports & classic cars

Above: Teretonga Starting Grid 1965

4. Jack Brabham 7. Stirling Moss 47. Bruce McLaren

entries invited

Page 8: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

l o t

0 1William A Sutton

Oil on Canvas Signed & Dated 1983 510 x 1070mm $20,000 - $28,000

Canterbury Nor’wester (Land and Sky series No. 5)

l o t

0 2William A Sutton

Watercolour Signed & Dated 1982 385 x 530mm $4,000 - $6,000

Orton Bradley Park, Autumn

Page 9: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

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Up until 1949 Sutton was largely concerned with making pleasant representations of the Canterbury landscape and other subjects in a pseudo

Impressionist style, following what he had

been taught at Canterbury College School

of Art. The school promulgated an art education

system where students were encouraged to

draw and paint what they saw and to formalise

composition as much as possible based on

accepted pictorial principles. This concern

for the outward appearance of things was

cultivated by teachers at the school such as

Cecil Kelly, Ivy Fife, Colin Lovell Smith and

Archibald Nicoll. All were artists that Sutton

greatly admired and was keen to emulate.

However after spending time overseas from

1947 – 1949 and experiencing first hand the

works of great artists such as:

Joseph W. M. Turner, Paul Nash, Stanley

Spencer and above all Paul Cézanne, whose

work had the greatest impact, Sutton realised

that there were other possibilities in painting.

Following his return to New Zealand he began

to see the Canterbury landscape with a

new vision. No longer was it the superficial

appearance that was important, but rather

its structure and the unique features of the

Canterbury environment. One of these was the

characteristic effect that the summer nor’west

wind had not only on the land forms of hills and

Canterbury Plains but also the distinctive cloud

patterns it created in the sky. The nor’wester in

Sutton’s painting played a major role for the first

time in his now pre-eminent work Nor’wester in

a Cemetery (1950) a painting that was also the

seeding ground for many ideas he progressed in

his various landscape series in the decades

that followed.

In 1983 Sutton began his series Land & Sky

which was later attributed by him as likely

having been directly inspired by a work by

his friend and fellow artist Doris Lusk. Some

years later Sutton stated in an interview with

researcher Sarah Rennie that:

“Years ago Doris Lusk did a sketch on the Port Hills

while working with a group of learners, looking

down a gully and recording the wind patterns of

the tussocks as the nor’wester twisted and buffeted

them. This image is still with me and may have

influenced my Land and Sky series”.

Sutton initially made 7 paintings in 1983 of

which Canterbury Nor’wester is number 5 . In

these paintings he combined the dominant

features of the Canterbury Plains and its shapes

against the horizon of a nor’west sky. The

following year he extended the series exploring

and progressively refining each painting with

varying degrees of abstraction to achieve

imagery that symbolised rather than described

Canterbury, its sky, hills and plains.

Born in Christchurch in 1917, Sutton studied at

Canterbury College School of Art from

1932 – 1938. He began exhibiting at the

Canterbury Society of Arts in 1938 and first

showed with the Group in 1946. In April 1947

he held his first solo exhibition at the Pioneer

Hall in Dunedin prior to leaving for study

overseas. On his return to New Zealand after

nearly two years in England and Europe Sutton

joined the staff of the University of Canterbury

School of Art as a lecturer, teaching mainly

drawing and painting. He retired in 1979 and

the following year was awarded the CBE for his

service to art. Sutton died in 2000.

Page 10: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

l o t

0 3William Henry Raworth

Watercolour Signed, Titled & Dated 1872 335 x 623mm $4,000 - $6,000

Mount Cook From Braemar

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During the early part of 1872 Raworth spent time in the Mount Cook region painting. Among the subjects

that appears in several watercolours from this

time is the Jollie River Valley and Gorge.

This painting further back in the valley is

thought to depict the early homestead at old

Braemar Station looking up the Jollie River

Valley toward Mt Cook. Raworth has painted

the scene characteristically with a particularly

dramatic nor’west sky. Like his teacher John

Linnell the painting of skies was a good means

of expressing the forces of nature and adding

romantic atmosphere to a painting. At the time

this watercolour was made Braemar Station

had just passed out of the ownership of

John Hall, later Sir John Hall, Prime-Minister of

New Zealand 1879 -1882. Depicted dominantly

in the painting is thought to be the original

Braemar homestead which was once described

as comprising just three rooms. Often, on such

visits to the back country, Raworth would have

someone local as a guide and occasionally he

would include them in a painting. It is likely that

the shepherd standing with his dog was Raworth’s

guide on this occasion.

Born in Nottingham in 1821, Raworth became

a pupil and later assistant to his uncle the

celebrated London painter John Linnell

(1792 -1882). Linnell was a strong advocate of

naturalism which required painting as much as

possible on the spot out of doors rather than in

the studio. This is an approach that Raworth also

practiced after he came to New Zealand but in

contrast he did finish many watercolours in his

studio. Raworth married his cousin Elizabeth

Linnell (1824 -1880) in 1849 and they emigrated

to Canterbury on the Sir George Seymour the

following year. Within a short time of his arrival

Raworth had set up a studio in Lyttelton and

was advertising for pupils. However the 1850s

did not offer many prospects for professional

artists and within a few years Raworth had

moved to Australia. However opportunities

there were no greater for him and he returned

to Canterbury. Around 1868 he set up his home

and studio in Armagh St close to Hagley Park

and began advertising for pupils. Over the next

four years he also travelled extensively through

the South Island and early in 1872 spent time

painting in the Mt Cook region. By June of

that year Raworth was back in Australia again

where he held a major exhibition of some 100

watercolours of New Zealand Scenery at

Hines Gallery, Collins St, Melbourne.

The reviews of the exhibition which included

several Mt Cook paintings were full of praise,

with Raworth’s works being ranked the equal

to Nicholas Chevalier and John Gully for his

mastery of the picturesque.

After nearly a year in Australia he returned

to Christchurch but soon after moved south

to Dunedin in search of better prospects. The

few years Raworth spent in Otago offered

him much material for his brush but limited

remuneration and by 1878 he had moved

once again to Australia, this time to Sydney. In

1884 and 1885 Raworth had two successful

exhibitions respectively at Burlington Gallery

and Conduit St Galleries London. Back in Sydney

he continued to maintain his profile as an artist

in Australia until his death in 1904 .

Page 12: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

Oil on Board Signed & Dated 1957 580 x1020mm $20,000 - $30,000

l o t

0 4Doris Lusk Night Drive Port Hills

Exhibited

The Group Exhibition, 10 -25 October 1959, Cat No 24

Contemporary New Zealand Painting and Sculpture, Auckland Art Gallery, April 1960

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Doris Lusk spent her formative years as an artist in the 1930s in Dunedin. The environment of that city with its harbour

and hills predisposed her to being attracted to

landscapes that had strong bold structure. On

moving to Christchurch to live in 1942 she was

equally attracted to the features of the Port

Hills and geomophic of Banks Peninsula. From

the late 1940s regular family holidays were

spent near Akaroa and the landscapes that Lusk

exhibited at Group exhibitions during that time

and into the 1950s reflected those experiences.

Back in Christchurch the Port Hills were a

constant feature on the horizon and Lusk made

many representational paintings looking down

from these hills onto either the Canterbury

Plains or Lyttelton Harbour. However

towards the end of the 1950s no longer was

topographical accuracy was no longer important

and her interest in abstraction began to grow.

Her landscapes though based on a specific place

were reordered with all unnecessary detail

removed, and became more symbolic than

descriptive. This move toward abstraction on

Lusk’s part was not isolated just to her as it was

part of a general movement among the more

progressive New Zealand artists in the 1950s,

with many aligning themselves to a kind of

pseudo Cubism to achieve a more harmonious

abstract picture space. Lusk’s landscapes of

the late 1950s of which Night Drive Port Hills

is one, also have a slightly Cubist structure. In

Night Drive Port Hills there is more than the

mere formal revision of the picture plane, and

this brooding nocturnal scene could almost

be described as overtly surreal. The painting’s

composition fundamentally comprises a series

of interlocking curves and counter curves

dominated by the shapes of the road and hills,

the rhythms of which are echoed in the sky.

The eye is drawn along the lighted edge of the

road toward the glowing city beyond then to

moon that hovers almost as a counterbalance in

the painting’s composition. There is much in the

features of this painting that relate indirectly

to several surrealist landscapes by the British

artist Paul Nash. Like works by Nash in which

the moon has a commanding presence Lusk has

used it to effect not only in a night time scene,

but to add another dimension to the painting

which takes on a symbolic dreamlike presence.

The 1950s were without doubt one of the most

important decades in Lusk’s career as many

of the paintings made during this time attest,

reinforcing her place as one of New Zealand’s

most important 20th Century landscape painters.

Doris Lusk was born in Dunedin in 1916 and

studied art at the King Edward Technical

College Dunedin from 1933 to 1939. Following

her marriage to Dermot Holland in 1941 she

moved from Dunedin to live in Christchurch.

At that time she was a potter as well as a painter

and Lusk tutored pottery from 1947, and was a

foundation member of the Canterbury Potters

Association. From 1966 to 1981 she also

taught at the University of Canterbury School

of Fine Arts. After receiving a Queen Elizabeth

II Arts Council Travel Award in 1974, Lusk

travelled to Europe, Canada and the United

States, but it was the New Zealand environment

that remained the major influence upon her

work. Shortly after her death in 1990 she was

posthumously honoured with the Governor

General Art Award for her outstanding

contribution to New Zealand art.

Page 14: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

Oil on Plywood Signed, Titled & Dated 1945 520 x 450mm $20,000 - $25,000

l o t

0 5Doris Lusk Botanical Gardens, Avon River

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Botanical Gardens, Avon River (1945) was painted a few years after Lusk moved to Christchurch from Dunedin. During her studies at Dunedin’s

King Edward Technical College (1934-9), Lusk

was introduced to a modernist approach to

landscape painting and encouraged to paint

outdoors. She absorbed much from tutors

Charlton Edgar and R. N. Field and from the

mid-30s painted Central Otago subjects with a

rare perception and vigour. In the early 1940s

Lusk married Dermot Holland and moved to

Christchurch. Botanical Gardens, Avon River,

painted near the United Bowling, Tennis and

Croquet Clubs building (depicted in the related

oil Autumn, Avon River, 1944), appears almost

naïve in execution, yet harvests a subtle strength.

The subject of two small children playing in the

river reflected Lusk’s situation at the time as a

young mother with a toddler. The scale of the

children, somewhat dwarfed by the large tree on

the right of the composition, is held in check by

the placement of the three blue-green benches

and the sweep of both river and distant path.

Lightly executed in oil on plywood, this charming

painting is one of only four known oils of Hagley

Park dating from the 1940s.

Page 16: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

The vistas, scale and texture of the terrain around Queenstown captured Lusk’s attention over several decades and

she returned to paint in this area throughout her

career. The aerial perspective, strongly evident

in the accomplished watercolour Queenstown,

(1957), is typical of a number of Lusk landscapes

and, in this regard, is reminiscent of her

important Waikaremoana series, executed in

the North Island the previous decade.

The detailed foreground houses and trees hold

the viewers attention in Queenstown as the

scene opens up across Lake Wakatipu, past

Frankton Arm, to the commanding drama of The

Remarkables, cropped at the top of the painting.

The broad washes illustrate Lusk’s command

of the watercolour medium and the forms and

shapes within the painting are underpinned by

strong observational drawing. Auckland Art

Gallery own the large related work, Frankton

Arm, Lake Wakatipu - a highly-stylised oil

executed in the same year. The watercolour

Queenstown, was one of two works (the other

an oil portrait) dated 1957 in Lusk’s 1973

Retrospective, held at the Dowse Art Gallery

(now The New Dowse), Lower Hutt.

The diversity of the exhibition, which included

sixty-five still life, landscapes and several

portraits, illustrated the depth of Lusk’s

explorations and vision. The show was well

received throughout the country and toured to

Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland. Perhaps

most importantly it acknowledged Lusk’s

contribution to painting in New Zealand at a

significant time for the artist who by then was

a highly respected lecturer at the University of

Canterbury School of Fine Arts.

l o t

0 6Doris Lusk

Watercolour Signed & Dated 1957 380 x 575mm $6,000 - $9,000

Queenstown

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l o t

0 7Michael Eaton

Acrylic on Canvas Signed and Dated 1977 615 x 615mm $1,500 - $2,000

Treescape 16

Page 18: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

l o t

0 8Rudi Gopas

PVA & Oils on Board Signed & Titled c1965 1005 x 910mm $5,000 - $8,000

Space ( Galactic Landscapes )

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This painting was first exhibited as part of an exhibition entitled Galactic Landscapes 1965-67 at the New Vision

Gallery as part of the Auckland Festival in

May 1967, the only time Gopas ever had a

one person show in Auckland. The painting

was number five in a catalogue of twenty

works and was given the title Unknown Regions. However on the back of the painting

the title is given (twice) as Unknown Region;

presumably the catalogue title is a misprint,

possibly by analogy with three works in the

catalogue given the title Uncharted Regions

I, II, and III. There is also a second title on

the back, namely Space, and the medium

is given as oil, not PVA (polyvinal acetate).

Presumably the work did not sell at the

Auckland show and Gopas chose to exhibit

it again under a different title. He may

have felt that Space was better outside the

context of the Galactic Landscapes exhibition.

The different description of the medium is

harder to explain. Perhaps before exhibiting

it again Gopas reworked the surface of the

painting with oil paints. In a catalogue note

for the New Vision exhibition, Gopas wrote:

‘The paintings presented here as “Galactic Landscapes” evolved from experiments

with Texture in PVA. The main aims I set

myself were: To use very tangible texture in

order to suggest something intangible; To

produce paintings for “Living Light” revealing

different aspects with the changing moods

of light; To suggest a state of Emergence

and Becoming, rather than to interpret

finalised forms…’ What is most revealing

about these comments is that the paintings

were to Gopas as much a depiction of ‘inner

space’ as of the ‘outer space’ suggested by

the exhibition title and the titles of individual

works which included (in addition to those

mentioned) Interstellar, Globular Cluster, Great Looped Nebula, Red Field and Milky Way – all

suggestive of astronomical observation.

Of course Gopas was himself a passionate

amateur astronomer, and states in the New

Vision catalogue, ‘Indeed, I do not remember what I produced first (at the age of 12 or 13) – my first painting or my first (rather flimsy) astronomical Telescope.’ Around the mid 1960s

Gopas’s work had undergone a major change

of direction from boldly coloured marine

studies of Kaikoura and Lyttelton, with strong

links in style to German Expressionism, to

various forms of abstraction. Paintings like

Space were an attempt to translate into the

medium of pigment, the vast landscapes of

deep space that Gopas was nightly exploring

through his home-made telescope. But while

abstraction was a means of exploring outer

space it was, at the same time, a means for

exploring inner space. It is this intersection

of the microcosm with the macrocosm, inner

space with outer space that gives Gopas’s

work of the 1960s its distinction. Technically

speaking, by mixing glue-like PVA with

sawdust, grit and various kinds of studio

detritus, Gopas was able to create textured

surfaces which caught the light differentially

and were thus able to suggest star sprinkled

cosmic spaces as well as creating intriguing

objects for the meditation of mental travellers.

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l o t

0 9Romain de Tirtoff (Erté)

Gouache 200 X 270mm $7,000 - $9,000

Aventurine

From the private collection of a former circle fine art director.

The work is based on his painting for the cover of the March 1919

issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

‘Aventurine’ was the first of Ertés jewellery designs to be realised as

an art to wear work. It was released in 1979 and became the most

popular of the artists jewels.

Refer Erté Art to Wear - The Complete Jewelry. Featured on The Cover

and pages 38 - 41.

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l o t

1 0Romain de Tirtoff (Erté)

Gouache Inscribed “from La Toison d’or” 140 x 110mm $7,000 - $9,000

La Courbe

From the private collection of a former circle fine art director.

Refer Erté Art to Wear - The Complete Jewelry. Featured pages 106 & 107.

Page 22: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

l o t

1 1Frances Hodgkins

Watercolour Signed c1912 435 x 565mm $75,000 - $100,000

Young Ladies in Conversation

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The date, setting and circumstances of this lively and delightfully informal work, are revealed by its close similarity to two other works which share precisely the same subject. They are The Convalescent, watercolour, 1912,

(see Ascent 5: Frances Hodgkins Commemorative

Issue, 1969, p. 31) and Two Girls in Conversation,

watercolour, c. 1912 (Frances Hodgkins 1869-

1947, Whitford and Hughes, London, 1990,

catalogue no. 3). All three watercolours depict

the same two girls or young women in the same

simply furnished room. In all three one of the

girls is either lying in or sitting on the bed. In

The Convalescent the second girl is sitting on the

bed talking to the one lying down; in Two Girls

in Conversation, the convalescent is sitting cross

legged on the bed while the other girl is seated

on a chair beside the bed but leans on the bed

with her right hand propping up her head. In the

work in this catalogue, which can also be dated

to 1912, the convalescent (which we now know

she is) sits bare-legged on the bed, while her

visitor (possibly a sister, possibly a friend) sits on

a chair close by, cradling a kitten on her lap.

The simply furnished room with an iron

bedstead is possibly in a hospital or infirmary,

though the presence of the kitten perhaps

makes a non-domestic setting less likely.

The rosary beads hanging on the wall, visible in

two of the works, probably locate the setting of

the three works in France, where Hodgkins was

mostly resident between 1908 and 1912, when

she returned for the last time to New Zealand.

The watercolour medium was almost exclusive

to her work prior to her return to Europe in

1913. It was common for Hodgkins throughout

her career to depict two people in the same

picture, whether husband and wife, mother and

child, sisters, or female friends. Some of her

most famous works take this form, such as the

Tate Gallery’s Loveday and Anne, or Auckland

Art Gallery’s The Bridesmaids.

Another watercolour from the pre-war period

which has such a double focus is The Window-

Seat (1907) in the Art Gallery of New South

Wales. Writing of that work, art historian

Michael Dunn, has said, “There is perhaps a

recollection of the Intimiste interiors of French

painters such as Vuillard whose works she could

have seen in Paris” (Frances Hodgkins, Paintings

and Drawings, AUP, 1994, p. 98). The same could

be said of the work under discussion, which

shows a similar freedom in the handling of the

watercolour medium. Common to all three

works is the striking intimacy and informality

of the situation. Residence in France gave

Hodgkins access to more advanced painting

styles than were available to her in New Zealand

or England. At the time this work was painted

she was still under the spell of Impressionism, in

her preoccupation with light and shadow, and

the suggesting of forms by long fluid lines of

colour. Here soft blues and browns predominate

in the light coming from the window over

the bed.

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l o t

1 2Ann Robinson

Lead Crystal Glass #1 Signed & Titled 2008 300 x 535 x 305mm $9,000 - $12,000

Hemisphere Vessel 2008

Slight Imperfection on Base

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l o t

1 3Richard McWhannell

Oil on Linen on Board Signed, Titled & Dated 1200 x 950 mm $8,000 -$10,000

‘Richard - Fedora’

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l o t

1 4Trevor Moffitt

Oil on Board Signed, Titled & Dated 1971 900 x 1200mm $20,000 - $30,000

The Only Catch of the Day

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Trevor Moffitt’s ‘Big Fishermen’ paintings hail from the late 1960s and early 1970s, and they embrace an activity

that was a big part of the artist’s recreational

life. When Moffitt relocated from Southland to

Timaru in 1962 he seized the opportunity to fish

the Opihi and Rangitata. His later permanent

base in Christchurch gave him access to the

famous salmon waters of the Rakaia and it was

there that he became acquainted with the many

angling protocols surrounding the Canterbury

river-mouth. These would have been a

revelation to someone like Moffitt, whose

primary angling experience came by way of the

somewhat solitary nature of stalking trout on

the rivers and lakes of Southland.

Expanding further on the successful figures-

in-the-landscape theme that featured so

prominently in the earlier Goldminer and

Mackenzie series’ of the mid 1960s, Moffitt

demonstrates a knowing eye when depicting

the stance of these anglers and the distinctive

colours of the snow-fed Rakaia River. These

local colours are essentially ‘absorbed’ by the

figures on the river banks, and almost this entire

series takes on a very distinctive grey-to-

turquoise colour range. This limited palette,

along with his characteristic lacquer finish and

forthright signature combine to resolutely,

and unmistakably, define these paintings

as ‘Moffitts’.

The painter is clearly not presenting us with a

narrative sequence about the delicate art of fly-

fishing; rather these are hard men and women

with robust gear, feet firmly planted on gravel

banks fraught with dangers.

Unlike other types of angling, salmon fishing at

the mouth of this particular river can be both

communal and fiercely territorial. There is a

staunch camaraderie but at the same time strict

adherence to one’s place within the pecking

order of this river bank. Their focus is often

massive fish - heading up-river from the sea to

spawn. For its participants this can be a cold and

very physical pastime, so this end the painter’s

treatment of his subjects is often as rough-hewn

as the blokes themselves.

‘The Only Catch of the Day’ from 1971 is

however a more contemplative image where

the viewer is unsure if the subject is harbouring

feelings of triumph at the size of his catch, or

disappointment at the singular nature of it.

Where some of the other works from this series

such as ‘Dead Quinnat‘ have been described by

artist Bill Sutton as ‘a harsh statement of death,

put down in uncompromising terms’, this is a

much more subtle statement about life, death and

the human condition. Ralph Hotere’s comment

that Moffitt could paint 10 miles with a single

brushstroke’ certainly resounds through this

work as it also delivers a profound sense of

depth and distance.

‘The Only Catch of the Day’ is one of a unique

series of 47 works by a singular New Zealand

artist. This is not a cursory glance at a key New

Zealand pastime, but a boots-and-all celebration

of it by the Big Fisherman himself.

Key Source:

Trevor Moffitt – A Biography

Chris Ronayne

David Ling Publishing 2006

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l o t

1 5Trevor Moffitt

Oil on Hardboard Signed & Dated 1966 580 x 530mm $20,000 - $30,000

Mackenzie With Dog Swimming in the Clutha River

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29

When Southland born Trevor Moffitt decided in 1964 to produce a series of paintings depicting the famous sheep-stealer James Mackenzie, he started on a path that 40 years later would lead him to be regarded as one of New Zealand’s most significant narrative artists.

Born in Gore in 1936, Trevor Moffitt was raised

in Waikaia and grew up around the Switzers

mine tailings. He was educated at Waikaia

School and it was through this community that

he absorbed stories relating to the many deeds

and legendary characters that helped mould

Southland’s rough-hewn colonial history.

The painter came from hardy working class

stock; with a heritage of hard physical work,

yet Trevor harboured a desire to further his

education at the Canterbury College of Art.

This ambition was met with a hostile reception

at home. A now famous Moffitt portrait hangs

in Christchurch Art Gallery. It features his

father Bert with ‘Best Bets’ in one hand, his other

hand pointing accusingly at the would-be artist.

The painting is entitled ‘No Son of Mine Goes to

University’. Trevor did go to University and his

father refused to speak to him again for several

years. After successfully graduating art school

and teachers’ training college, he returned

again to Southland, to work as an art educator

in InvercargilI.

Although he would finally leave Southland for

good in 1964, it transpired that Southland would

never leave this particular artist. His first major

series of landscape paintings were appropriately

called ‘Southland Series I’ and they explored the

rugged profile of his native province. He would

go on to give presence to another Southland

landscape with his ‘peopled’ ‘Goldminer’ series of

almost 90 paintings - informed by his childhood

memories of Waikaia and the associated gold

history still resonating amongst its tailings and

abandoned mines. But it was this marrying of

figures with the landscape that would give rise

to Moffitt’s most recognised and nationally

significant body of work.

The ‘Mackenzie Series’ was produced from

Moffitt’s new base in Timaru and these

paintings would finally give a face to one of

the most famous figures from South Island

folklore. Mackenzie himself had strong links

with Southland and his footfalls in certain areas

of the province predated recorded European

settlement. This Gaelic speaking outlaw’s legacy

was also tempered in the far south by a degree

of affection and respect that certainly

wasn’t accorded him in Moffitt’s new base of

South Canterbury.

In an interview with Gregory O’Brien for

‘Land & Deeds’ – Profiles of Contemporary New

Zealand Painters’ Moffitt spoke of that legacy:

‘Where I came from, Mackenzie was a hero. He

helped the poor Scottish settlers who, having

spent what little money they had on land, found

it impossible to get any stock. When the English

settlers in Canterbury wouldn’t sell them any,

Mackenzie stole them, and they’re certain he

moved two or three major mobs down to Southland

because suddenly sheep appeared all over

the place’.

The artist further noted that… ‘when I moved to

Timaru I was able to investigate him a bit more’.

When you consider what little is known of

James Mackenzie, it is easy to see why Moffitt

was so attracted to this subject. From the early

1850’s the Highland Scot and his remarkable

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dog covered enormous distances driving stolen

sheep through some of the most inhospitable

country in the South Island. Mackenzie himself

has been variously described as having;

’these mad eyes and sandy hair, jet black hair

and blue eyes, or bright red hair.’

Clearly a villain in the eyes of Canterbury

landowners, Mackenzie was pursued and

eventually arrested. He was prosecuted and

incarcerated in Lyttelton prison, from where

he made three unsuccessful escape attempts

(being wounded during one of them). It was

from his prison cell that he imparted critical

information to fellow Scottish visitors seeking

to take up pastoral leases in the far south. It was

to one particular future Southland run holder

Alexander McNab that Mackenzie imparted

detailed descriptions of the river valleys in the

far south suitable for sustaining livestock, but

he also described the varied physical challenges

settlers would have to overcome in going there.

From personal experience, Mackenzie’s

principal challenge (apart from the law) would

certainly have been the Clutha River. Even a

cursory glance at its brooding turquoise depths

confirms the dangers inherent in attempting to

cross it. This is not, and has never been, a river

to wade or ford. In the absence of any ferry a

traveller would have to swim, and probably take

their life in their hands doing so. Especially if

one was also trying to drive a mob of sheep to its

southern banks! For Trevor Moffitt, ‘the painter’

there was the potential to develop a near tragic

scenario, but for Trevor Moffitt ‘the angler’,

who knew this river, those attractive folklore

elements would be tempered by a heightened

respect for Mackenzie’s ability as a shepherd.

Moffitt was never a romantic artist and

his paintings are generally devoid of any

sentimentality. However in ‘Mackenzie with

Dog – Swimming the Clutha River’ the solid, stoic

figure of Mackenzie seems to acquire an almost

Pre-Raphaelite grace as he moves against the

dangerous current. The scene is bristling with

trepidation and the subject’s manner is clearly

tempered by an obvious abiding concern for

not only for his own safety, but for that of his

precious dog.

l o t

1 5Trevor Moffitt Mackenzie With Dog Swimming in the Clutha River

(Continued)

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31

True to form, Mackenzie’s disappearance

from New Zealand’s colonial history was as

mysterious as his arrival. At the conclusion

of his prison sentence he seemingly wasn’t

released into New Zealand, but rather put on a

boat to South America. To this day there is no

reliable physical description of this remarkable

character, so it was fitting that fellow artist and

critic Don Peebles once wrote of Moffitt’s 1964

series; ‘it doesn’t matter what Mackenzie actually

looked like, this is what he is going to look like form

now on’.

Moffitt had put a face to a name and personified

a legend. An image from this series would go

on to grace the cover of James McNeish’s

important historical novel ‘Mackenzie’ and other

works housed in major museum collections

which would cement the face of this shadowy

folk hero in the minds of generations of New

Zealanders. For the prodigious painter that he

was, the Mackenzie Series is remarkably small by

Moffitt standards. It seems only 13 works were

ever produced – along with a small selection

of lino-cut prints. Without question, Moffitt

was our most distinguished narrative painter

and he doggedly prospected and celebrated

many marginal aspects of New Zealand’s social

history when it was unfashionable to do so. Yet

even when considering his many remarkable

and substantial bodies of work that the painter

was to produce over the next 40 years; it was

Mackenzie who helped Moffitt strike the richest

vein in the mine of New Zealand folklore.

Trevor Moffitt died in Christchurch on

4 April 2006, aged 70.

Key sources:

Lands & Deeds – Profiles of Contemporary

New Zealand Painters

Gregory O’Brien

Godwit 1996

Trevor Moffitt – A Biography

Chris Ronayne

David Ling Publishing 2006

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l o t

1 6Jonh Gibb

Oil on Canvas Signed & Titled 1892 500 x 745mm $18,000 - $24,000

Mill House Near Christchurch

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33

The 1860s and 70s saw a boom in grain production on the Canterbury plains, and as much of this was for local consumption there was a need in most country districts for a means of processing crops quickly which gave rise to the building of many mills. These were mostly set up beside streams and

rivers to enable a waterwheel to power the

various pieces of machinery that the mill ran.

Many were dual purpose, milling not only

grain but also flax to accommodate an equally

burgeoning flax fibre industry.

The loction of the mill depicted in Gibb’s

painting is not certain but is likely somewhere

in North Canterbury possibly in the Ashley or

Balcairn area. It is however typical of the kind

of watermill that would have been operating in

the back country in earlier years, but by the time

Gibb made this painting the use of waterpower

had already been mostly superseded by steam

and such mills were being retired and becoming

something of a rarity.

Although Gibb is best known for his work

as a marine artist he also did paintings of

contemporary rural life and industry including

many of homesteads. Most of these were

commissioned and this may also have been the

case for Mill House Near Christchurch.

By the 1890s Gibb’s career as a painter had

matured and he had achieved much popularity

due in no small measure to the regularity

he exhibited his paintings throughout New

Zealand. At this time he was also progressing

his keen interest in photography, and was using

more frequently his half-plate camera imagery

as an aide memoire in preparation for his studio

paintings. It is possible that Mill House Near

Christchurch may have originally been based on

such an image.

Born in Scotland in 1831 Gibb had shown a

natural inclination for drawing and painting

and by 1849 was receiving tuition in the

studio of the Scottish painter John Mackenzie

of Greenock The subjects of Gibb’s early

work during the 1850s, 60s and early 70s

were focused on the Highlands the Clyde

River and the environs of the Firth of Clyde.

A traditionalist Gibb aligned himself with the

picturesque style of such Scottish artists as

Alfred de Breanski Snr., Joseph Farquarson and

Sam Bough. He followed the academic practice

of sketching the landscape and gathering

information which was later worked up in the

studio with intense attention to detail.

Gibb emigrated to New Zealand late in 1876

and settled in Christchurch. Within weeks he

was out painting and soon after held the first

show of his work at a picture framers shop in

High St. As there was no local art society, he

initially exhibited at the Otago Society of Arts

exhibitions in Dunedin. When the Canterbury

Society of Arts was eventually formed in 1880,

Gibb was a foundation member and by the time

of his death in 1909 he had exhibited more than

200 works with the Society. Gibb also showed

in Auckland and Wellington from the early

1880s and sent works to all the international

and inter-colonial exhibitions beyond New

Zealand. By the 1880s he was regarded as one

of New Zealand’s major professional artists.

The painting Mill House Near Christchurch is

not only a fine example of the full effect of

decades of experience and skill as an artist, but

historically this work is a significant record of a

rural industry that no longer exits.

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l o t

1 7Barry Cleavin

Complete Suite 1-13 all numbered 9/20 Inscribed & Dated 1988 660 x 490mm each $3,000 - $4,000

Allegations Series Suite

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35

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l o t

1 7Barry Cleavin Allegations Series Suite

(Continued)

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37

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l o t

1 8Quentin Macfarlane

Liquitex, Acrylic Paint on Canvas Signed 770 x 620mm $2,000 - $3,000

Estuary Cold Light

Exhibited

“The Group Show” Christchurch 1970. Catalogue number 85

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39

l o t

1 9Dame Eileen Mayo

Screen Print Signed, Titled & Numbered 485 x 350mm $1,500 - $2,000

Springing Fern

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l o t

2 0Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

Oil on Board Signed & Dated 1991 1190 x 1000mm $30,000-$40,000

Las Meninas (after Velázquez)

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41

The riches of the Prado (Museum) became a whirling reprise, revealing new possibilities for his own painting.... Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1656) exercised a special fascination. Woollaston haunted the room where it was installed.(1)

In February 1987 Toss Woollaston travelled

to Spain in the company of Wellington art

dealer Peter McLeavey, intending to renew

his acquaintance with the works of European

Old Masters; Francisco Goya, Diego Velázquez

and El Greco. As the recipient of a grant from

the New Zealand Government’s Arts Advisory

Council in 1962, (2) Woollaston was already

familiar with Velázquez’s Las Meninas from a

previous visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid,

admiring the complexity of its composition and

its realism. (3)

On his return to the Prado in 1987, the work

assumed even more importance as Woollaston

became preoccupied with Velázquez’s depiction

of the infant Margarita Teresa, daughter of the

King and Queen of Spain, her ladies in waiting

and the artist’s treatment of interior space.

Woollaston’s study, Las Meninas (after Velázquez)

1991, highlights a number of important and

fundamental aspects of his practice. It also

belongs to a wider body of watercolours,

sketches and oil paintings by Woollaston of

works by the Old Masters that share much

in common with his landscapes and portraits,

revealing his commitment to modernism and its

concern with the integrity of ‘painterly truths,’

in representing the real world on the two-

dimensional picture plane. (4)

How was Woollaston’s enthusiasm for

Velázquez nurtured in New Zealand? In 1958,

Woollaston received a grant of £500 from the

Annual Fellowship of the Federation of

New Zealand Art Societies, allowing him to

travel to Melbourne and Sydney to study

first-hand, paintings by Rembrandt and other

European artists.(5) At the National Gallery of

Victoria, Nicolas Poussin’s The Israelites Crossing

the Red Sea drew Woollaston’s attention

to the formal qualities of his own painting,

encouraging his interest in completing further

study of works he admired in Western art. In

doing so, his response assumed a life of its own,

with his studies occupying as important a role

in his practice as his landscapes and portraits.

Woollaston’s biographer, Gerard

Barnett observed: Woollaston returned to make

drawings and watercolours of Poussin’s large oil

painting,... fascinated by the structural logic of its

composition. Soon his copies which had begun

as an exercise for sharpening perception, evolved

into more engrossing study – no less exacting than

drawing from nature. (6)

Indeed, Woollaston made little distinction

between his Old Master studies and his

treatment of the New Zealand landscape:

‘Poussin... he’s like nature in that he gives you

plenty to do without suggesting that you merely

copy him.’ (7) Appreciation of Woollaston’s

studies was equally apparent in a solo exhibition

of his work held in June 1988 at the Peter

McLeavey Gallery in Wellington with the

artist exhibiting a study of Las Meninas, (8) as

well as works by Canaletto and an anonymous

fifteenth-century Spanish painting. (9)

Woollaston’s first experience of Goya and

Velázquez at the Prado Museum equally

informed his portraiture from the early 1960s.

On his return from Madrid in 1962, he began a

series of ambitious paintings that gave greater

consideration to the composition of his subjects.

Most notably, his complex spiral grouping of

the figures in The Buchan Family (1963-1964),

and the psychology of the family in a moment

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of ‘domestic tumult,’ shares an empathy with

Goya’s group portraits of the Spanish

royal family. (10)

When he returned to the Prado in 1987,

Woollaston was 76 years of age and no doubt

his visit was an opportunity for him to consider a

lifetime of his own work beside the Old Masters.

(11) However, his letters to his wife Edith and

her sister Margaret Alexander reveals the spell

that Velázquez’s Las Meninas continued to hold

over the artist. He was fascinated with a work

that directly addressed essential questions

about the deception of painting’s representation

of the real world; the artifice and intelligence

of its composition, its treatment of space and

the viewer’s relationship with a work of art. He

frequently returned to view the painting, his

obsession frustrated by the constant flow of

tourists and school groups to the Museum.

He wrote to Margaret Alexander: I have spent

a lot of this morning comparing - Las Meninas –

with a [Giovanni Battista] Tieolo round the corner

to which I repaired whenever Las Meninas got

overcrowded... Japanese school parties as well

as Spanish ones, and ordinary guided adults, left

only odd short moments when I could look from

a favourable position. The space construction is

beautiful – the easel a near rectangle cutting in

from the left into a much larger one downward

& from the right – the ceiling and 2 walls – with

a cornucopia of figures coming inward & upward

from the lower right. Full of varying emphases, the

sharpest in the centre of the large rear deep-space

rectangle, where the man goes out of the door &

looks back as he does so. This thrust both ways is

also at the lower right in a different form, where

the child puts his (her) foot on the dog’s rump and

the dog puts his weight into resistance – a bit of

sideplay if you like, in illustrative terms – but more

importantly a formal element in the construction of

the picture. (12)

Further correspondence with Edith, reiterated

that Velázquez’s painting had won him over:

‘Marvellously this afternoon I got several sessions

alone with Las Meninas. The talkers and their

listeners crowd the room but only stay briefly.

You can’t get nearer than about 12 feet from that

painting because of the ropes, which makes it

harder to turn the naturalism into paint itself, as

you can in most of the others. Things we have seen

in reproduction necessarily only a fraction of their

size are thick with paint, added to, altered and

changed – just as a real painter does! It is good to

see miracles properly clothed in material.’ (13)

At one point, Woollaston considered a series

of works based upon Las Meninas, commenting

to Edith: ‘Trios from Las Meninas – a theme has

occurred to me. The figures dispose themselves in

so many different trios. Fascinating.’

It is this shifting relationship between

the figures and the spaces they occupy

that Woollaston considers in Las Meninas

(after Velázquez). Tutored by Flora Scales

in Nelson in 1934, her knowledge of Hans

Hoffman’s modernist theories and emphasis

on the reduction of aerial and mathematical

perspective systems were fundamental to

Woollaston’s practice. (15) The compositions of

his paintings were typified by the construction

of overlapping planes and passages of paint that

directed attention to the edges of the canvas,

reducing spatial recession and leading the

viewer’s attention back to the surface of the

picture plane.

In his detailed description of Las Meninas to

Margaret Alexander, Woollaston expresses

his admiration for Velázquez’s exposure of the

trickery of painting, noting the placement of the

artist’s easel close to the edge of the canvas,

(reminding his audience of the painting they are

also viewing), the central figure bathed in light

l o t

2 0Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston Las Meninas (after Velázquez)

(Continued)

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43

who turns and directs attention back to the

foreground, and the positioning of the child and

dog which also serves to frame the work. Las

Meninas (after Velázquez), particularly reveals

Woollaston’s interest in Velázquez’s treatment

of light and the way in which it equally

illuminates both foreground and background

figures, drawing the viewer’s attention

back to the foreground and further denying

spatial recession. It’s the kind of textbook

lesson in modernism familiar to Cézanne’s

landscapes, with Woollaston reconciling the

reduction of space on the picture plane with his

characteristic, gestural treatment of form and

robust composition.

On the advice of Peter McLeavey, Woollaston

had extended the scale of his landscape painting

in 1971, and become increasingly concerned

with the challenges of diverting the viewer’s

attention away from the centre of the painting,

(where attention more instinctively resided),

to distribute interest democratically across the

picture plane, creating a ‘surface that conducts

the eye to the outer limits of the painting.’

(16) The decision represented an important

maturity in his practice. As Barnett observed:

‘The large gestural works of the fifties and sixties

can be seen as forays into the expansive rhythms of

the baroque. Consummately, his large landscapes

of the seventies and eighties fuse a romantic sense

of vitality and grandeur of nature, with a classical

concern for pictorial structure.’ (17)

Barnett’s commentary directs attention

to Woollaston’s appreciation of the Old

Masters, particularly Velázquez, revealing the

significance of the Spanish artist’s work as both

an expression of Woollaston’s intentions as a

painter, (18) and his mutual empathy for the New

Zealand landscape and European traditions

of painting.

[1] Gerard Barnett, Toss Woollaston, Wellington:

National Art Gallery, 1992, p. 95.

[2] Gordon Brown and Hamish Keith, An Introduction

to New Zealand Painting 1839-1980, Auckland:

Bateman and Collins, 1982, p. 156.

[3] Barnett, p. 108.

[4] Tony Green, ‘Toss Woollaston. Origins and

Influences,’ Gordon H. Brown Lectures, Wellington:

Victoria University, 2004, p. 3.

[5] Brown and Keith, pp. 154-156.

[6] Barnett, p. 63.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Woollaston to Kerry Aberhart, 21 November 1987,

Jill Trevelyan, [ed] Toss Woollaston. A Life in Letters,

Wellington: Te Papa Tongarewa, 2004p. 436.

[9] Trevelyan, , p. 431.

[10] Barnett, 74.

[11] Trevelyan, p. 256.

[12] Woollaston to Margaret Alexander, 11 February

1987, Trevelyan, pp. 420-421.

[13] Woollaston to Edith Woollaston, 12 February

1987, Trevelyan, p. 422.

[14] Barnett, p. 21.

[15] Brown and Keith, p. 158.

[16] Barnett, p. 87.

[17] Barnett, p. 91.

[18] Barnett, p. 81.

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l o t

2 1Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

Watercolour Signed & Dated 265 x 350mm $4,000 - $6,000

Horoirangi from Mapua

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45

l o t

2 2Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

Watercolour Signed & Dated 1966 230 x 300mm $4,000 - $6,000

Tasman Bay from Mahana

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l o t

2 3After Antonio Canova

Mid 19th Century Height 1070mm $10,000 - $15,000

Italian white marble figure group “ The Three Graces”

Antonio Canova’s (Venetian, 1757 -1822 ) statue “The Three Graces” is a neo-classical sculpture of

the mythical three charities and daughters of Zeus, Euphrosyne, Algaea and Thalia, who were said to

represent beauty, charm and joy. An original marble version of the Three Graces is in the

Hermitage Museum.

From The Mount Cook Station Collection

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47

l o t

2 4After Bertel Thorvaldsen

Mid 19th Century Height 910mm $5,000 - $8,000

Italian white marble figure of Venus

Bertel Thorvaldsen (Swedish, 1770 - 1844) was widely considered the greatest neo-classical sculptor

after Canova. Thorvaldsens Venus was commissioned by the Russian Countess Irina Vorontsov

as part of a series of gods and goddesses. An original marble version of Venus with the apple by

Thorvaldsen is in the Louvre.

From The Mount Cook Station Collection

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l o t

2 5Eion Stevens

Oil on Canvas Signed, Titled & Dated 1987 760 x 760mm $4,000 - $6,000

Explaining art to a dead Hare (3rd version)

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49

Artist Index

1 William A Sutton

2 William A Sutton

3 William Henry Raworth

4 Doris Lusk

5 Doris Lusk

6 Doris Lusk

7 Michael Eaton

8 Rudi Gopas

9 Romain de Tirtoff (Erté)

10 Romain de Tirtoff (Erté)

11 Frances Hodgkins

12 Ann Robinson

13 Richard McWhannell

14 Trevor Moffitt

15 Trevor Moffitt

16 John Gibb

17 Barry Cleavin

18 Quentin Macfarlane

19 Dame Eileen Mayo

20 Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

21 Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

22 Sir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston

23 After Antonio Canova

24 After Bertel Thorvaldsen

25 Eion Stevens

By Lot Number

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3 Bidding The highest Bidder shall become the Purchaser subject to the Auctioneer having the right to refuse any bid or resolve any dispute by putting such Lot up for immediate resale, and the Auctioneers declaration shall be conclusive. The Auctioneer alone may fix the amount of a bid or permit it to be withdrawn. The Auctioneer will resolve any dispute about the bidding, whether at or after the auction. The Auctioneer may combine or divide Lots. A bid authorises the Auctioneer to note the auction sheet and, where writing is required, to execute the contract at that bid on behalf of the bidder and authorises the charge of any buyer’s premium referred to in clause 8.

4 Payment Unless arranged otherwise in writing with the Vendor and Auctioneer, the terms of sale are cash on the fall of the hammer for all Property except real estate, and subject to Watsons Payment Conditions.

5 Reserves / Vendor Bidding If the Auctioneer has stated whether in relation to the particular Lot, that the auction is subject to a reserve price and/or that the Vendor reserves the right to bid, the Vendor may personally or through the Auctioneer bid as often as desired. Where the highest bid is below the vendor’s reserve, the Auctioneer may state the sale is subject to the Vendor’s consent or words to that effect, and the highest bid shall remain valid until either accepted or rejected by the Auctioneer.

6 Attribution Where any Property has been attributed to a particular artist it shall be clearly stated as being “attributed” in the auction guide, catalogue, or at the auction. The Auctioneer accepts no liability whatsoever in respect of erroneous or false attribution.

7 Vendor Warranty Unless specifically stated otherwise in relation to identified Property the Vendor warrants only:

(a) That the title in the property sold will pass to the purchaser only upon the purchaser completing payment in full by cash, cleared cheque, or cleared electronic bank transfer.

(b) That there are or will be no security interests, liens, or encumbrances on the Property not advised in particulars of sale or by the Auctioneer before entering upon the auction.

8 Buyers Premium Where announced or notified before the auction that there is a buyer’s premium and the amount of or the method of calculating it, the Purchaser is to pay, upon the fall of the hammer, the amount or rate announced plus GST.

9 Delivery All Property sold shall be removed on the day of the auction, subject to payment in full as required or as otherwise provided in the particulars or announced. If not removed the Auctioneer may charge a reasonable sum for warehousing Property, but will not be liable to the Purchaser for them in any respect.

10 Default If the Purchaser fails to pay the purchase price or collect the Property as required, the Auctioneer may elect to resell the Property in any manner without notice to the Purchaser who will be liable for any deficiency in price (after allowing all commissions or expenses of resale whether of the Auctioneer,

Terms and Conditions

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Vendor or others), the buyer’s premium and liquidated damages of one and a half times the standard overdraft interest rate being charged by the Auctioneer’s bank at the time of sale (as conclusively certified by the apparent manager of the bank) or may sue for the price, liquidated damages as calculated above and solicitor and client costs for pursuing the Purchaser, whether or not cancelling the contract. In the event of there being any surplus following resale it will belong to the Vendor. The Purchaser may not recover more than actually paid by the Purchaser.

11 Storage In the event of any Purchaser’s default, the Auctioneer shall be entitled to store any Property at the expense of the Purchaser in its own store or elsewhere, to charge interest on the purchase price at a rate of 5% per month, and to retain possession of any other Property the Purchaser has purchased until such time as all charges then owing have been met by the Purchaser.

12 Provenance If provenance of Property is warranted it shall be clearly stated in the auction guide, catalogue or at the auction by the Auctioneer. A Purchaser may within 14 days of the auction prove to the satisfaction of the Auctioneer that the property is a forgery, whereupon the Vendor will repay the purchase price or deposit, as the case may be, in full, subject to the return of the Property in

good condition.

13 Antiquities / Firearms Purchaser’s who purchase an item classified by the Antiquities Act 1975 or the Arms Act 1958 may not take possession until they have produced a valid licence under the requisite Act.

14 Auctioneers Liability The Auctioneer will not be liable to the bidder or Purchaser for:

(a) Except for any statement or warranty by the Auctioneer personally, otherwise all Lots are sold as viewed with all errors, misdescriptions, faults and imperfections whether visible or not;

(b) Any warranty of title or freedom from encumbrances;

(c) Any misdescription or errors in condition, state, size, quality or quantity or for any other error whatsoever;

(d) Any Vendor bidding without the Auctioneer’s knowledge; or

(e) Any failure to bid for a bidder.The Auctioneer will not be liable to the Vendor:(f) Directly or by indemnity for any of the matters

referred to in clause 14, except where the breach, or other wrong, was deliberate and without authority from or assistance by the Vendor; or

(g) For any failure to collect the price or deposit from the Purchaser as the case may be.

15 Risk The Auctioneer will not guarantee the safety of any Property or documents of provenance warehoused following sale, but undertakes to the Purchaser alone that the Auctioneer’s premises are reasonably secure (but not measured in relation to the Property held) and to hold bailee’s insurance.

16 Monies Received All moneys received by the Auctioneer will be held in trust for the credit of the Vendor, but the Auctioneer may deduct fees (whether the liability of the Vendor or Purchaser), expenses and any moneys necessary to perfect title to the Purchaser or to ensure compliance by the Vendor of any other warranty or undertaking to the Purchaser.

17 Licence The Auctioneer warrants to all persons that the Auctioneer is the holder of a current Auctioneers Licence pursuant to the Auctioneers Act 1928.

18 Vendor Warranties The Vendor has warranted to the Auctioneer that they have the power to sell the Property and that at the time of delivery the Property shall be free of all encumbrances.

19 Watson’s Payment Conditions(a) Credit cards accepted are Visa and MasterCard;

they will attract a 2.5% charge on top of the Hammer price plus buyer’s premium. A buyer’s premium at the stated rate + GST is applicable to all Lots sold.

(b) Watson’s are happy to give condition reports on specific Lots to the best of our ability, but they are only given as a guide not as a statement of fact refer clause 18(a).

(c) All Lots are to be taken away at the buyer’s expense within TWO days from the date of sale.

Auction conducted by W.T Macalister LTD, Licensed Auctioneers. A member of the Macalister Group of Companies

Terms and Conditions

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C H R I S T C H U R C H N E L S O N W E L L I N G T O N A U C K L A N D S Y D N E Y

www.DuncanCotterill .com

The Art Of Law

Page 53: Watson's The Connoisseurs Art Collection - Auction Catalogue - August 11 2011

Credits

Essays Written By.. Neil RobertsWilliam A Sutton - Canterbury Nor’wester (Land and Sky series No 5)

William Henry Raworth - Mount Cook From Braemar

Doris Lusk - Night Drive Port Hills

John Gibb - Mill House Near Christchurch

Grant BanburyDoris Lusk - Queenstown

Doris Lusk - Botanical Gardens, Avon River

Peter SimpsonRudi Gopas - Space ( Galatic Landscapes )

Frances Hodgkins - Young Ladies in Conversation

Jim GeddesTrevor Moffitt - The Only Catch of the Day

Trevor Moffitt - Mackenzie With Dog Swimming in the Clutha River

Dr. Warren FeeneySir Mountford Tosswill “Toss” Woollaston - Las Meninas (after Velázquez)

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Auction

Thursday 11 August 2011

Commencing at 7pm

The George Hotel

50 Park Terrace

Christchurch

New Zealand

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www.watsonsauctions.com

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