First World War painting 'Simpson and his Donkey' up for auction

Simpson And His Donkey is named after the famous Australian soldier, but actually features NZ medic Richard Henderson. Photo / Supplied

A First World War painting, considered to be one of the most significant works of art ever offered for sale in New Zealand, could fetch $500,000 when it goes under the hammer at auction in Auckland on Wednesday.

Horace Moore-Jones' evocative and powerful Gallipoli watercolour was painted from a photograph he believed featured John Simpson Kirkpatrick, an Englishman with the Australian Imperial Forces who was killed on May 19, 1915 shortly after he landed on Turkish soil.

But in fact, the original photograph was taken by James Gardiner Jackson of Dunedin and featured New Zealand medic, Richard Henderson, who took over from Simpson when he was killed.

Both Moore-Jones' painting and the original photograph will be offered for sale at Parnell's International Art Centre auction on Wednesday.

The painting is similar to a smaller version of the same scene, also by British-born painter Moore-Jones, which sold for $257,000 earlier this year.

However, Richard Thomson of the International Art Centre said the latest version was probably the first or second of the five or six versions Moore-Jones did of the painting, known as Simpson and his Donkey.

It is signed and dated 1915.

Moore-Jones died a hero in 1922 after he was badly burnt rescuing people from a hotel fire in Hamilton.

He never learned that his painting, which he originally named after John Simpson Kirkpatrick, an Englishman who enlisted in the Australian Army, actually portrayed the Kiwi, Henderson.

The painting is owned by the Commerce Club of Auckland, formerly the Commercial Travellers Club, which bought it from Moore-Jones' widow in 1926 for 300 pounds.

It hung in the club's Remuera clubrooms for many years before it was loaned to the Auckland War Memorial and Museum where it has been an integral part of the Scars on the Heart exhibition.

The exhibition covers New Zealand's involvement in wars, from the Boer War which began in 1899 in South Africa, to recent United Nations deployments.

Anton Coetzee, the Commerce Club general manager, said the club needed funds for essential repairs and maintenance to its Remuera building and members had decided with great reluctance to sell the painting.Mr Thomson estimated the painting would bring between $300,000 and $500,000.

The painting was likely to be protected under the Protected Objects Act, 1975, which meant it could not be taken out of New Zealand without ministerial approval - and that was given only in exceptional circumstances, he said.

The photograph is expected to fetch up to $20,000 at the auction which begins at 6.30pm.