1946, Frances Hodgkins: Artistic exile

Frances Hodgkins' The Piano Lesson (gouache and watercolour), Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

A major retrospective of the work of neo-Romantic artist Frances Hodgkins took place in November 1946 at London's Lefevre Gallery.

Hodgkins, who died the following year, is one of the greatest painters this country has produced but most of her work was done in Europe and throughout her life she received little understanding and much hostility in her native country.

She left for the northern hemisphere in 1901, returning only twice, and rather than claim her accolades for New Zealand, the Herald seemed content to leave them to the British.

Bridesmaids by Frances Hodgkins, 1930, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

"A great deal of her painting was done in France, and in that country too she was highly acclaimed.

"She was an artist of the impressionist school, but, as the Times once said . . . 'She, like Cezanne, is engaged in trying to make of impressionism something like the old masters'."

But Hodgkins' reputation is now well established among the top ranks of New Zealand artists and her influence widely acknowledged, by Colin McCahon among others.

Frances Hodgkins in her studio at Corfe Castle, Dorset. (NZ Herald Archive)

"She suffered because of this exile and the loss to her country was also great."

With hindsight, we reverse the coolness of the 1947 Herald and declare Frances Hodgkins New Zealander of the Year for 1946.

Further reading:
Biography of Frances Hodgkins, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

'Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and drawings', Auckland Art Gallery

'A commemoration: Frances Hodgkins' works 1929 - 1946', Christchurch Art Gallery

'The Drawings of Frances Hodgkins', Art New Zealand