Goldie's pupil makes mark

An oil painting by an artist mentored by renowned New Zealand painter Charles Goldie has sold for three times its value as buyers who cannot afford a Goldie get into art investment, say art experts

Vera Cummings' oil painting of a Maori woman smoking a pipe, Kapai Te Toriri (Tobacco is Good), was expected to sell for $3000 to $4000 at an auction of early and rare New Zealand art in Auckland this week.

But the bidding reached $10,600 which was what a Goldie painting would have fetched 25 years ago, said International Art Centre director Richard Thomson.

"She was a pupil of Goldie. She worked with him but she didn't quite have that recognition the same as Goldie."

Cummings was becoming more popular among people who could not afford the $200,000 needed to buy a Goldie, he said.

At the same sale a 124-year-old oil painting by Goldie of Maori chieftainess Kapi Kapi sold for $175,000, slightly under its expected price of between $180,000 and $240,000.

Two years ago a similar Goldie work of the same woman sold for $325,000.

Some of Cummings very good paintings were considered to be far better than Goldie's bad paintings, Mr Thomson said.

"Goldie prices have pushed up (the price of) other Maori portraits."

For many collectors a Goldie was unobtainable because of the prices they were bringing, Mr Thomson said.

"The next best thing is a Vera Cummings but they are still 10 times cheaper, which doesn't really make sense, but that is the market."

Some Cummings paintings were "real pot boilers" produced for the tourist market but she also produced some very fine paintings such as the one sold this week, he said.

She had a real following and, like Goldie, her paintings were never passed in when offered for sale.

An 1874 Alfred Sharpe watercolour of the original Orakei Bridge near the Auckland waterfront sold for $50,000 after it was expected to bring up to $65,000.

A Frances Hodgkins water colour sold for $2000 more than its expected sale price of $60.000.

- NZPA