Lot 26 Ann Robinson
Spiral Vase, Purple
Lot 27 Grace Wright
The Night Mist of My (Tangerine Heart)
WOMEN IN ART
27 05 25
ENQUIRIES
auctions@artcntr.co.nz
+64 9 379 4010
CONDITION REPORTS
Grace Alty gracealty@artcntr.co.nz
Grace Harris grace@artcntr.co.nz
Luke Davies luke@artcntr.co.nz
AUCTIONEER
Richard Thomson richard@artcntr.co.nz
AUCTION
6.00pm Tuesday 27 May
International Art Centre 202 Parnell Rd Parnell, Auckland
VIEWING
Wednesday 21 May 9.30am - 5.30pm
Thursday 22 May 9.30am - 5.30pm
Friday 23 May 9.30am - 5.00pm
Saturday 24 May 10.00am - 4.00pm
Sunday 25 May 11.00am - 4.00pm
Monday 26 May 9.30am - 5.30pm
Tuesday 27 May 9.30am - 5.30pm
RESULTS ACHIEVED
1. Marti Friedlander Louise Henderson Studio, 1975 - $18,018
2. Rata Lovell-Smith Sheffield, Canterbury Railway Station - $21,829
3. Star Gossage Ao Tahi, First Light - $48,050 *
4. Jenny Dolezel In the Listening Room - $48,650
5. Marti Friedlander Eglinton Valley, 1970 - $24,025 *
6. Pauline Yearbury St Francis, Tobias and Friends - $28,830
7. Pauline Yearbury Wake up Saint Francis - $30,031 * * New Artist Record
WOMEN IN ART 27 05 25
We are pleased to present our second auction celebrating artworks created by women artists. The catalogue showcases art spanning several decades, from the early 20th Century through to Contemporary works. The offering features a wide variety of mediums, subject matter and price ranges. We look forward to welcoming you to the viewing.
29 July 2025
ENQUIRIES
Richard Thomson
richard@artcntr.co.nz
+64 9 379 4010
+64 27 4751 071
Featured PETER SIDDELL City with Towered Houses, 1974 Oil on board 120 x 80 cm
Lot 74 Frances Irwin Hunt
Lot 95 Ida H Carey
Lot 77 Ida G Eise
Untitled, Central Auckland
| Women in Art
LIVE BIDDING
We offer live online as well as in room bidding. For instructions on how to bid please visit our website www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
ABSENTEE & TELEPHONE BIDDING
Should you be unable to attend the auction, you may register an absentee or telephone bid. Please contact us to arrange prior the sale
MOBILE BIDDING PLATFORM
Visit https://auctions.internationalartcentre.co.nz to register on our online bidding platform
Our bidding platform enables you to browse catalogues, enjoy auctions in real time and place bids from anywhere in the world
Directors Richard Thomson & Frances Davies
202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Ph: +64 9 379 4010 Toll Free 0800 800 322 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
1 UNA PLATTS (1908 - 2005)
Self Portrait
Oil on board 49 x 39 cm
$1,500 - 2,500
This self-portrait by Una Platts (1908–2005) offers a quiet reflection of the woman who became one of New Zealand’s most influential art historians. Though trained as a painter, Platts is best known for her scholarly work, most notably Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide and
Handbook. The result of over two decades of meticulous research, this publication remains the definitive reference on colonial-era New Zealand art. In the 1950s, Platts contributed significantly to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi oTāmaki, curating exhibitions that helped shape the public’s understanding of early local artists and the visual history of Auckland. Her self-portrait captures not only the artist but the careful observer and documentarian, whose legacy continues to inform and inspire art historical scholarship in New Zealand.
2 RHONA HASZARD (1901 - 1931)
Untitled (Blue Cottage, Brittany)
Watercolour, double-sided 23 x 30.5 cm
Signed lower left
$5,000 - 10,000
ILLUSTRATED
Rhona Haszard, An Experimental Expatriate New Zealand Artist, Joanne Drayton, Canterbury University Press, 2002, p. 70
EXHIBITED
Claridges’s Hotel Exhibition, Alexandria, Egypt, 1928 Landscape verso Lot 2
(1865 - 1934)
Venice
Watercolour 34 x 23 cm
Signed lower left
$6,000 - 8,000
4
(1865 - 1924)
An Evening Idyll Oil on board 50 x 18.5 cm
Signed lower right
$10,000 - 15,000
ILLUSTRATED
Grace Joel, An Impressionist
Portrait, Joel L. Schiff, Otago University Press 2014, image 2.15, p. 57
British (1915 - 2010)
Landscape, 1963
Oil on board 59.5 x 49.5 cm
Initialled lower left
Portal Gallery label affixed verso
$5,000 - 8,000
Gwyneth Johnstone was a British painter known for her poetic, semi-abstract landscapes. Born in London, the daughter of the artist Augustus John (1878 - 1961), she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and later developed a distinctive style described as romantic modernism. Her paintings often depict solitary figures in lyrical, dreamlike rural settings. Johnstone exhibited widely across Britain and Europe and continued painting into her nineties, earning quiet acclaim for her deeply personal, evocative work.
6 ELISE MOURANT (1921
- 90)
Winter in the Park, Blackrock, Dublin
Oil on canvas board 49.5 x 55 cm
Signed lower right
Label affixed verso in artist’s hand
$600 - 1,200
Elise Mourant was a New Zealand modernist painter whose work spanned urban scenes, still lifes and expressive landscapes. Trained at the Wellington Technical College before World War II, she went on to study at the
National College of Art and Design in Dublin, the Slade School in London and later at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland from 1943.
Active in the flourishing post-war New Zealand art scene, Mourant exhibited widely, holding solo shows with the Auckland Society of Arts in 1947 and 1949, and participating in key group exhibitions including those of The Group in Christchurch and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. She was also a founding member of the Rutland Groupan influential collective of modernist painters that included John Weeks and Ida Eise.
7 RITA ANGUS (1908 - 70)
Watercolour 34.5 x 16 cm
Signed lower right
$15,000 - 25,000
Provenance
Collection of the Rita Angus Estate Collection of Murray Shaw
8 EVELYN PAGE (1899 - 1988)
In the Garden Oil on canvas 33.5 x 25 cm
Signed & dated 1960 lower left
$8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
Acquired from the artist
9 DORIS LUSK (1916 - 90)
Mixed Flowers, c.1939
Watercolour 33 x 30 cm
Signed & inscribed on affixed label
verso
$2,000 - 3,000
This delicate watercolour, bearing a handwritten inscription dated circa 1939 on the verso, reflects the early development of Doris Lusk’s lifelong fascination with gardens and botanical arrangements. Closely related
to Mixed Flowers (1940) in the Hocken Collection, Dunedin, this work captures the vibrant immediacy and domestic intimacy that characterised Lusk’s early still lifes.
In August 1940, arrangements of garden flowers, similar to those depicted here, famously filled Lusk’s Moray Place studio for the Wednesday afternoon opening of her first solo exhibition, a landmark event in her emerging career.
Pacific Flower - Memea Sorosoro
Pink, 45% lead crystal, cast glass
41.5 x 21 cm
Signed & dated 2014 on base
$8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE
Collection of Ann Robinson
Private collection
EXHIBITED
Pacific Flower, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Auckland, 2014
Two Part Tower
Cast glass 35 x 95.5 x 8 cm
Signed & dated 2010 on base
$4,000 - 8,000
Negev Desert, Israel
Oil on canvas board 67 x 80 cm
Signed & dated 1966 lower right
$2,000 - 3,000
A largely self-taught artist, Philips took drawing classes at Hamilton’s Technical School and summer schools at Ardmore Teachers’ Training College and Auckland Art Gallery. In the 1950s, she attended summer workshops led by Colin McCahon, whose mentorship encouraged her to experiment and pursue her own artistic vision. Philips developed a distinctive style: meticulous paintwork, poetic colour and an abstracted but evocative portrayal of the land. Philips exhibited widely throughout New Zealand.
Major exhibitions included Contemporary New Zealand Painting and Sculpture, Auckland Art Gallery, 1962, the Manawatu Prize for Contemporary Art 1967, and The Paintings of Margot Philips, Waikato Museum, 1983. In 1987, she was honoured with a major retrospective, Margot Philips – Her Own World, at the opening of the Waikato Museum of Art and History. In recognition of her contribution, a gallery within the museum was later named the Margot Philips Gallery.
13 FRANCES HODGKINS (1869 - 1947)
Washer Woman and Hens, 1893
Watercolour 22.5 x 15.5 cm
Signed & dated 93 lower right
$8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
14 FRANCES HODGKINS (1869 - 1947)
Caravan in Brittany (Gipsy Caravan) 1901
Watercolour 31 x 23.5 cm
Signed and dated 1901
lower right
$25,000 - 35,000
PROVENANCE
Mr Leslie W ilson
Mr A H Fisher, Dunedin, New Zealand, c.1954
Private collection
ILLUSTRATED
E H McCormick Portrait of Frances Hodgkins, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1981, p. 42
EXHIBITED
The Origins of Frances Hodgkins: An Exhibition of Paintings in the Centennial Year of her Birth, Hocken Library, Dunedin, 1969
CATALOGUE NUMBER
FH0341 - https:// completefranceshodgkins.com/ objects/25810/gipsy-caravan
15 HELEN FLORA SCALES
(1887 - 1985)
Untitled [Mousehole, Cornwall
c.1950 - 54]
Oil on canvas 25 x 32.5 cm
Signed lower left
$10,000 - 15,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
EXHIBITED
Exhibited as 5 Boats and Derrick, Flora Scales, The Suter Te
Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, 2018
ILLUSTRATED
Flora Scales, The Suter Te
Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, 2018, pg.14
‘Mousehole, Cornwall’ is typical of Helen’s paintings with its patchy, lightly scumbled brushwork, and a flattening out of the elements of composition with its echoes of late cubism crossed with the ‘motif’ of a specific land or seascape. Braque comes to mind but always Helen’s singular focus makes it very much hers.
The view is seen through a window with curtain slanting in from left, boats anchored in the shallow inner harbour and the tall wooden crane standing dominant in its geometry between the two curving piers at the entry from the sea to the harbour. This can be seen as a patch of blue paint behind the crane. Until the mid-1970’s this crane was used to hoist boats over the baulks which closed off the inner harbour to protect the village from winter storm surges.
Helen’s idiosyncratic drawing with her large brushes is evident in the navy shadows under the boats and in her patches of colour; yellow, white, green, blue and ochre in a row across the middle of her composition. As with many of her paintings - especially her later 1970’s works - they are all pushing towards an abstraction and reflect her knowledge of contemporary French modernist painting that started with her early training in 1931 at the Hans Hoffman school of art in Munich
GRETCHEN ALBRECHT
Flora Scales painting outdoors, Pihautea, Wairarapa, New Zealand, April 1906
16 RHONA HASZARD (1901 - 31)
Blesmes Near Chateau Thierry
(The Marne Valley) c. 1927
Watercolour 27 x 35.5 cm
Signed & inscribed
$15,000 - 20,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
Estate of a University Professor in Cincinnati, USA
EXHIBITED
Revisiting Modernism, 27
September - 14 October 2023, Gow Langsford Gallery, Kitchener St, Auckland
NOTES
A watercolor study for The Marne Valley 1927 oil painting, now in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki. Also pictured on the cover of Joanne Drayton’s Rhona Haszard, An Experimental Expatriate New Zealand Artist book, 2002.
Painted during Rhona Haszard’s formative European period, Blesmes near ChâteauThierry (Marne Valley) is a preparatory study for her larger composition The Marne Valley 1927, exhibited at Claridge’s Hotel in Alexandria from 9–16 December 1928. Executed during her time in France, the work reflects Haszard’s acute sensitivity to architecture, landscape and the quiet rhythms of rural life.
Foregrounded by steeply pitched terracotta rooftops and clustered white-washed buildings, the painting opens outward
toward a layered expanse of the Marne Valley. Haszard’s handling of perspective and colour is assured yet restrained, combining a graphic understanding of form with the transparency of the watercolour medium. Her use of line and tonal washes brings subtle animation to the scene: delicate shadows cast across walls, and a lone figure walking through the village give the composition a narrative intimacy.
Photographic documentation from the 1928 Claridge’s exhibition shows the artist seated before the final oil version, affirming the significance of this motif in her practice. While The Marne Valley translates the subject into a bolder, more painterly idiom, Blesmes near Château-Thierry retains a quiet immediacy and compositional clarity, offering a rare glimpse into Haszard’s working process and her deepening relationship with the European landscape.
This work stands as a testament to Haszard’s ability to distill the atmosphere of place through a modernist lens, balancing structure with lyrical restraint.
Haszard at an exhibition of her paintings in Claridge’s Hotel, Alexandria, 9–16 December 1928. Two of the visible works are Early Morning at Camaret and Spring in the Marne Valley.
17 DORIS LUSK (1916 - 90)
The Beginning of the End (Demolition series), 1982
Acrylic on canvas 74.5 x 54.5 cm
Signed & dated 1982 lower right
$20,000 - 30,000
EXHIBITED
Constructed Demolitions, The Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery, Christchurch, 1982
In The Beginning of the End, Doris Lusk captures a moment of transformative destruction with precision and restless energy. Part of her celebrated Demolition series (1979–82), this work reflects the artist’s fascination with the visual drama of half-destroyed structures - a revelation that struck her while witnessing demolitions in Christchurch’s city centre. Rather than lamenting the loss of architecture or offering a sociological critique, Lusk approached these fractured landscapes as rich sources of formal challenge, exploring spatial ambiguities, complex lighting, and layered textures.
Lusk’s working method for the series was both innovative and practical: she began by photographing real demolitions, creating intricate collages from her photographs and newspaper clippings, then translating these composites into expressive paintings. In The Beginning of the End, receding skeletal frameworks and rubble are rendered in an intricate play of cream stone, warm pinks, and pale yellows.
The work’s title suggests at finality, yet the vivid handling of surface and structure suggests dynamic reinvention rather than simple ruin. Despite the unsettling fragmentation depicted, Lusk insisted that her work remained firmly rooted in the practical - a visual image to hang my media painting on. The result is a composition where disorder becomes a vehicle for technical exploration, balancing destruction with an exacting, almost architectural sense of composition.
A leading figure in mid-20th-century New Zealand art, Lusk’s acute observational skills and inventive vision elevated the everyday into rigorous, compelling form. This work stands as a testament to her ability to find beauty and structure in unlikely, even chaotic, sources - offering viewers a moment where collapse becomes a new kind of construction.
18 MARTI FRIEDLANDER
(1928 - 2016)
Doris Lusk, c. 1979
Vintage cibachrome photograph
24.5 x 28 cm
$6,000 - 10,000
EXHIBITED
Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, 27 August - 08 November 2020
19 MARTI FRIEDLANDER
(1928 - 2016)
Evelyn Page, Wellington, c.1981
Vintage cibachrome photograph
29 x 29 cm
$6,000 - 10,000
EXHIBITED
Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, 27 August - 08 November 2020
ILLUSTRATED
Marti Friedlander, Portraits of the Artists, Leonard Bell, Auckland University Press, 2020, p. 266
20 MARTI FRIEDLANDER (1928 - 2016)
Moller’s Farm, 1966
Gelatin silver print 49 x 33 cm
Signed on mat board lower right
$6,000 - 10,000
EXHIBITED
Marti Friedlander: Looking Closely, Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, 10 October - 20
November, 2009
ILLUSTRATED
Leonard Bell, Marti Friedlander, Auckland University Press, 2009, Plate 74
21 ANS WESTRA (1936 - 2023)
Koroniti, Whanganui River, 1991
Vintage silver gelatin print 28 x 28 cm
Signed lower right
$3,500 - 6,500
ILLUSTRATED
Handboek Ans Westra
Photographs, Blair Wakefield
Exhibitions WBX, Wellington, 2004, p. 196
22 ANS WESTRA (1936 - 2023)
Waititi Marae, Auckland, 1980
Vintage silver gelatin print
28.5 x 25 cm
Signed lower right
$3,500 - 6,500
ILLUSTRATED
Whaiora: The Pursuit of Life, Katarina Mataira & Ans Westra, Allen & Unwin NZ Ltd, Wellington, 1985, p. 40
From the series: Artist Portraits
1981-87
Gelatin silver print 38.5 x 39 cm
$1,200 - 2,200
Cast glass, edition 1/1 33 x 35.5 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2000 on base
$25,000 - 35,000
EXHIBITED
Old Zeal: New Zeal, Axia Modern Art, Melbourne, 2000
Cast glass, edition 1/1 63.5 x 15 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 1999 on base
$25,000 - 35,000
EXHIBITED
Old Zeal: New Zeal, Axia Modern Art, Melbourne, 2000
Spiral Vase, Purple
Cast glass, edition 1/1
63.5 x 15 cm
Signed & dated 2004 on base
$25,000 - 35,000
The Night Mist of My (Tangerine Heart)
Acrylic on canvas 150 x 120 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2019
verso
$10,000 - 15,000
28 KUSHANA BUSH (b. 1983)
Sleepers with Lobsters, From All Things to All Men Series, 2012
Gouache and pencil on paper, triptych 75.5 x 170 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2012
verso
$30,000 - 40,000
EXHIBITED
All Things To All Men, Frances Hodgkins Fellowship exhibition
Uare Taoka o Hākena Hocken Gallery, Dunedin, 2012
Gouache & gold leaf on Hahnemuhle watercolour paper 166 x 118 cm
Signed & dated 2014 lower left
$10,000 - 15,000
EXHIBITED
Susanne Kerr - Tiny Ruins, FHE Galleries, Auckland, 2015
Dame Louise Henderson (1902-1994, née Sauze) was a pioneer of modernist abstraction in New Zealand and one of our greatest painters. Born in Boulougne-sur-Seine, Paris, her father briefly served as secretary to the sculptor Auguste Rodin. In 1920 she met New Zealand schoolteacher Hubert Henderson at the Museé de Cluny, and after accepting his proposal of marriage in 1925, migrated to Christchurch. Through the Canterbury College School of Art, she became a key member of The Group, the influential collective founded by Evelyn Page.
Though trained in embroidery and textile design in Paris, Henderson’s practice was varied and devoted to exploring the world around her. In New Zealand she found the artistic freedom that had eluded her in France. Over her seventyyear career, she worked in Paris, Christchurch, Wellington, the Middle East and Auckland. The significance of her distinctive contribution to New Zealand art history has only gained due recognition in recent years, particularly following Louise Henderson: From Life, the first major survey of her work, staged at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in 2019 and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū in 2020, some 25 years after her death.
Her talent was lauded by the preeminent Landfall editor Charles Brasch, describing her in 1959 as one of the relatively small number of painters in New Zealand who are entitled to be considered serious and professional, praising her application and devotion. Henderson’s three works offered in this sale celebrating women artists reflect her devotion to painting and the extraordinary variety of her oeuvre
In Lady in White, a seated woman presides over a fractured geometric room from her yellow chair. The motif of the seated woman – an enduring subject in art history – allowed the exploration of abstraction, form, colour, and composition,
pushing portraiture toward introspection. This work connects to Henderson’s earlier paintings of women like Les deux amies (The Two Friends), 1953, where cubism provides the visual language. Here, the visible graphite underdrawing reveals the artist’s process – her figure’s head nods and twists, her arm lifts and rests – offering a precious insight into the artist at work.
In 1950 the Hendersons moved to 62 Gillies Avenue in Epsom, Auckland, beneath Maungawhau Mount Eden. The studio there fostered introspection and Henderson’s deep engagement with cubist principles. By the 1960s Henderson expressed that while her artistic training and commitment to cubism was drawing to a close, it had provided her with a base on which now I can build my own painting
A 1968 studio addition by Group architect James Hackshaw intensified her relationship with nature: surrounded on three sides by native bush, she painted what she observed. Bush Revisited is lush and evocative – her sanctuary explored on canvas: my studio was in the bush… so beautiful, the trees! What else could I do but paint the bush?
In the late 1970s and 1980s Henderson continued to defy categorisation. She pursued still life, figurative subjects, reconstructed form and intense colour. Her The Return of the Prodigal Son, c.1980, retells the parable of homecoming and forgiveness. Her version unfolds in a New Zealand backyard: a feast laid across a checkered tablecloth, a Christmas tree upended and adorned with baubles, and the prodigal son in a mustard and salmon V-neck –clearly overdue for a shave. This nostalgic painting reveals Henderson’s mastery of colour and observation. It also embodies her dual identity and the artistic freedom she found in her adopted home.
DR MEGAN SHAW
31 LOUISE HENDERSON (1902 - 94)
The Return of the Prodigal Son, c.1980
Oil on canvas 169 x 119 cm
Accompanied by certificate of authenticity
$100,000 - 150,000
PROVENANCE
Dame Louise Henderson Estate
The funds received from the sale of this work will be used to support the Dame Louise Henderson Trust, which supports young New Zealand artists
32 LOUISE HENDERSON (1902 - 94)
Bush Revisited
Oil on board 90 x 60 cm
Signed upper left
$8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE
The Sutch-Ovenden collection, Wellington
33 LOUISE HENDERSON (1902 - 94)
Lady in White
Oil, acrylic and graphite on canvas 70 x 55.5 cm
$12,000 - 18,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
Acquired from the artist’s estate
34 JACQUELINE FAHEY (b. 1929)
A Funny Thing on Happened On K’Rd, 1984
Oil on board 92 x 138 cm
Signed & dated 84 lower right
$25,000 - 35,000
EXHIBITED
Portrait in the Looking Glass: The World of Jacqueline Fahey
Paintings from 1960 - 1995, Pakuranga Arts Society, 26 April26 May 1996
35 GRETCHEN ALBRECHT (b. 1943)
Physic, 1994
Stone/Zinc Lithograph, edition
1/30 60 x 80 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 94
$10,000 - 15,000
Physic - The definition of physics is ”the study of the physical plane of matter, motion, force and energy”. I left the ‘s’ off to make it singular. - Gretchen Albrecht. Extract from - Gretchen Albrecht; Between Gesture and Geometry, Luke Smythe, Massey University Press, Auckland, 2019
36 GRETCHEN ALBRECHT (b. 1943)
Flowers at Window, 1969
Acrylic on canvas 138 x 107 cm
Signed, inscribed Flowers at W indow & dated 1969 verso
$8,000 - 12,000
Pigment inks on Hahnemuhle
photo rag paper, edition 7/10
81 x 110 cm
Signed & dated 2013 verso
$15,000 - 20,000
Andrew’s
Archival Inkjet on Hahnemuhle
paper, edition A/P of 10 + 1 A/P
109 x 145 cm
Signed on label affixed verso
$25,000 - 35,000
39 SARA HUGHES (b. 1971)
Netsky, 2005
Acrylic on canvas 120 x 120 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2005
verso
$8,000 - 12,000
40 YVONNE TODD (b. 1973)
Next Time It Will Be Different, 2021
Offset print, edition 156/200 81 x 58 cm
Signed, editioned & dated 2021
verso
$2,000 - 3,000
41
Untitled Oil on canvas 35.5 x 39.5 cm
Signed & dated 99 lower right
$4,000 - 6,000
42 DEL
BARTON (Australian b. 1972)
To love what you give, 2013
Ink, watercolour and synthetic polymer paint on 600gm hot pressed watercolour paper 76 x 55.5 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2013
$8,000 - 12,000
45 HEATHER STRAKA (b. 1972)
Watercolour 19 x 15.5 cm
Signed & dated 16 lower right
$3,000 - 5,000
44 HEATHER STRAKA (b. 1972)
The Clean Up 2
Oil on cotton board 19 x 31 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2005
verso
$5,500 - 7,500
Defenders of New Zealand 14 Oil on cotton board 20.5 x 35.5 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2017
verso
$5,500 - 7,500
46 SUSAN WILSON (b. 1951)
The Swing of the Pendulum, From the Katherine Mansfield Short Stories Book Publ. 2000
Oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm
$2,500 - 4,500
ILLUSTRATED
Short Stories, Katherine Mansfield, Folio Society, 2000, p.95
Created as part of a series for The Folio Society’s 2000 millennium publication of Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories, The Swing of the Pendulum reflects Susan Wilson’s sensitive engagement with Mansfield’s complex emotional landscapes. Painted in Wilson’s London studio, the work carries echoes of both her inner-city surroundings and distant memories of her New Zealand childhood. Works from this series were first exhibited in London and later shown at Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland in 2003.
47 KATHRYN MADILL (b. 1951)
Catalogue of Belonging Oil on found book cover 19 x 15 cm each Signed & dated 2001 verso of each individual book (set of 7)
$6,000 - 10,000
48 BRONWYNNE CORNISH (b. 1945)
Goose with the Golden Egg
Glazed ceramic 22 x 29 cm
Signed on base
$2,500 - 4,500
49 JENNY DOLEZEL (b. 1964)
The Single Minded Pursuit of More VIII
Oil on canvas 45.5 x 56 cm
Signed, inscribed The Single Minded Pursuit of More VIII & dated 06.12 lower left
$8,000 - 12,000
50 JENNY DOLEZEL (b. 1964)
Figures in a Landscape
Pencil and oil on paper
40.5 x 72.5 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 1991
$4,000 - 6,000
52
Flowers, Blue
Acrylic on board 39.5 x 29.5 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2021
verso
$800 - 1,200
Morelicious
Lead crystal, Pate de verre glass
41 x 30 cm
$2,000 - 4,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
Acquired from Whitespace
Contemporary Art Gallery, Auckland
Hope
Oil on canvas 96 x 110 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2012
verso
$8,000 - 10,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
Acquired from ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
Standing Figure - Juno
Earthenware 35.5 x 11 cm
Signed & dated 2015 on base
$1,500 - 2,500
55 DI FFRENCH (1946 - 99)
Toby - Thousand Rocks Series
Cibachrome photograph
57 x 47 cm
$600 - 1,200
56 VIKY GARDEN (b. 1961)
Two
Acrylic on linen 50 x 75 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated September 2017 verso
$1,200 - 2,200
57 LOIS MCIVOR (1930 - 2017)
Faraway Hills, 2007
Oil on canvas 29.5 x 29.5 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 2007 verso
$2,000 - 3,000
58 COLETTE MOREY DE MORAND
French (1934 - 2022)
Waiting For Permission, 1988
Oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated 1988, London, UK verso
$6,000 - 8,000
A French-born painter and printmaker, Morey de Morand developed a distinctive abstract style after moving to New Zealand in the 1960s. Influenced by Abstract Expressionism and later London’s art scene, her work evolved from gestural painting to luminous geometric abstraction. Through international residencies and the Triangle Artists’ Workshop, she explored space, rhythm, and transformation. Her art reflects a lifelong inquiry into perception, place and presence.
59 PIERA MCARTHUR (b. 1929)
Bishop Pompallier arrives in a hired coach to Pukekohe in 1867 (2004)
Acrylic on Paper, marouflaged onto canvas 152 x 152 cm
Signed lower right
$10,000 - 15,000
ROBYN KAHUKIWA (1938 - 2025)
Wāhine with Three Feathers
Watercolour and Ink on hand made
Indian paper 51 x 70.5 cm
Signed & dated 2010 lower right
$3,000 - 6,000
TEUANE TIBBO (1895 - 1984)
Preparing the Feast Oil on board 59 x 89.5 cm
Signed & dated 1965 lower right
$10,000 - 15,000
62 FAITH MCMANUS (b. 1963) No. 4
Kuri Flag
Woodcut and collage on tapa with bound satin ribbon edging
76 x 136 cm
Signed & titled, hand stitched
$400 - 800
63 PHILIPPA BLAIR (1945 - 2025)
Autumn Snake with Sticks and Circles
Mixed media, acrylic on canvas
260 x 180 cm
Signed & dated 1984
$4,000 - 6,000
64 JOANNA BRAITHWAITE (b. 1962)
Come-Bye
Oil on canvas 51 x 61 cm
Signed, inscribed & dated verso
$7,000 - 10,000
65 JAN NIGRO (1920 - 2012)
Untitled - Study with Cat
Oil pastel & collage on paper
73 x 52 cm
Signed & dated ‘00
$1,000 - 2,000
Oil on board 60 x 52 cm
Signed & dated 1945 lower right
$800 - 1,200
Born in Levin and based for much of her life in Inglewood and Auckland, Jackson painted with an emotional force shaped by personal experience and direct engagement with the land. Though often associated with the influence of Toss Woollaston and Colin McCahon, both of whom supported and encouraged her, Jackson forged a style entirely her own: raw, intuitive and deeply felt.
View from Broad Bay - Otago
Peninsula
Oil on board 40.5 x 58 cm
Signed lower left
$800 - 1,200
68 IDA G EISE (1891 - 1978)
Bethells, 1931
Oil on board 30 x 25 cm
Signed & dated 1931 lower left
$300 - 600
EXHIBITED
Auckland Society of Art, Ida Eise Bequest Exhibition, 1979
69 JEAN HORSLEY (1913 - 97)
Kawau, 1988
Oil on board 119.5 x 79 cm
Signed & dated 88 lower right
$2,000 - 4,000
Jean Horsley was a New Zealand painter whose work played a pivotal role in introducing Abstract Expressionism to New Zealand’s art scene. Born in Auckland, she studied at the Elam School of Fine Art before travelling to London in 1934 to continue her training at the Chelsea School of Art.
The outbreak of World War II forced Horsley to return to New Zealand, where she retrained as a physical therapist. Despite this career shift, she maintained her commitment to art, continuing to sketch and paint, and taking lessons from Colin McCahon as well as attending summer schools.
Following the war, Horsley embarked on extensive travels through Japan, South Africa and the United States, before settling in London in 1961 for seven years. She then moved to New York, where she lived and worked for fifteen years, immersing herself in the dynamic postwar art scene. It was in New York that Horsley’s practice fully embraced abstraction, drawing influence from leading Abstract Expressionists such as Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler.
Horsley’s paintings, often in oils or watercolour, are characterised by bold abstraction and a sophisticated sense of colour and composition.
Throughout her career, Horsley exhibited widely. She showed regularly with the Auckland Society of Arts between 1935 and 1938 and in 1957 was included in Three Women Painters alongside M. Rainier and Freda Simmonds. She also exhibited with the Rutland Group, formed by Elam graduates, and contributed to several exhibitions of The Group in Christchurch (1955, 1957 and 1960), which provided a more progressive platform for artists outside traditional institutions.
In 1966, she held a shared exhibition with Louise Henderson at the New Vision Gallery in Auckland, highlighting their contributions to modernism in New Zealand. During her time abroad, Horsley also exhibited alongside fellow expatriate artists such as Ralph Hotere, Bill Culbert and Ted Bulmore.
In 1996, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to art. Following her death, a major retrospective titled Seize the Day: A Tribute to Jean Horsley was held at the Auckland City Art Gallery in 1997, celebrating her lasting impact on New Zealand’s modern art landscape.
70 JEAN HORSLEY (1913 - 97)
Splash, 1983
Watercolour on paper 56 x 76 cm
Signed lower right
$1,500 - 2,500
71 JEAN HORSLEY (1913 - 97)
Window, 1986
Charcoal, conté crayon and chalk on paper 59 x 45 cm
$1,500 - 2,500
The undoubted strength of women painters in New Zealand is a phenomenon, notes the foreword for New Zealand Women Painters 1845-1968, an exhibition mounted by the Auckland Society of Arts (ASA). Spanning more than 120 years, the survey aimed to demonstrate the active participation of women in local art history. Familiarity is found in the inclusion of Frances Hodgkins and Rita Angus, though lesser-known women in the catalogue far exceed those who have reached wider canon-acclaim.
For an organisation about to reach its centennial year in 1968, it feels curious that the women painter’s retrospective was the first of its kind mounted by the ASA. More so, considering the majority of the thirtytwo artists were members of the society. Beginning in 1870 as the Society of Artists, Auckland, the organisation held yearly exhibitions from 1881 and supported the work of more than 2000 artists throughout its history. Women were vital to the ongoing growth and adaptability that necessitated this lifespan. Take the society’s 1951 exhibition for example, where over half of the 86 exhibiting artists were women. Though mid-century exhibition reviews touted that domestic duties were their primary roles, women involved with the ASA were a far cry from weekend painters. They were trained and serious artists, who frequently partook as members and educators.
Amongst the most prolific was Ivy Margaret Copeland (c.1888-1961), an active member and vice-president throughout the 1940s–1950s. Copeland had painting lessons under Charles F. Goldie as a child, before attending the Elam School of Fine Arts in the 1920s, then pursuing further
Auckland Society of Arts Exhibition Catalogue of works by New Zealand Women Painters (18451968), 18 March - 14 April 1968
training in Europe. She returned to teach art at Elam and at several schools throughout New Zealand, before making an assured pivot to painting full-time. Copeland’s oeuvre demonstrates her versatility, encompassing portraiture, still life and landscape subjects, predominantly rendered in oil and watercolour. Her solo, Exhibition of Painting by I M Copeland (1951), demonstrates her impressive output and included 96 artworks, notably several still life studies of magnolias.
Similarities echo in the subjects of staunchly independent Frances Irwin Hunt (18901981). She studied landscape painting under Frank Wright (1860–1923) and was elected a member of the ASA in 1924. In
her forties, Hunt elected to study at Elam and became proficient in oils under the mentorship of John Weeks (1886-1965), whose stylistic influence is evident. Hunt’s still life scenes like Pot Plants, typically comprise a flattened composition and a block-like application of oil paint.
She regularly used the genre as a vehicle to experiment with colour and form, often employing a fractured Cubist style. She is equally known for her landscapes around Waikato, Taupō and Rotorua, capturing the growing impacts of industry during the mid-century. Drums, employs Hunt’s characteristic textured brushwork, depicting a once green pasture interrupted by stark fencing, exposed earth and discarded metal drums.
Alongside annual exhibitions, the ASA regularly hosted expansive solo-exhibitions at its large Eden Terrace galleries. Peggy Spicer (1908-1984) was another longstanding member of 48 years, whose solo-exhibition Old Auckland (1968) was particularly wellregarded. Spicer began painting under the guidance of her artist mother, Ella Spicer (1876-1958) and like Hunt, formally trained at Elam under Weeks. Her employment with the architect Wilson Moodie provided training in draughtsmanship and fostered her understanding of structure and perspective. This influence is a distinguishing aspect of her paintings and sketches, in which she portrayed iconic landmarks around Auckland and the South Island.
The farmhouse complex in Watering the Plants employs this architectural vernacular, though Spicer grounds the Southland
scene using broad and heavy brushwork, depicting another unique impression of local landscape. During the 1960’s, Spicer hosted a recurring Monday group of artists including Rena Mason (1914-2013), who would visit locations around Auckland to sketch together.
Closely examining the comprehensive history of the ASA until its disestablishment in 2004, reveals not only these, but countless other women whose influence on twentieth century art in New Zealand has often been understated. What also becomes clear, is the sense of community found amongst them in their efforts to build and vitalise the arts in Auckland, evidenced in their intertwined exhibition histories, friendships and their utmost dedication to the work.
MADELEINE GIFFORD
Pictured · Art students and teachers having a tea break at Elam School of Art, Rutland Street Building. From left: Ivy Copeland, Olive Jones, Mrs Duckworth, unknown, Mr Christofferson, Thelma Shaw, Louisa (Helps) Tilsey, Mrs Shaw (reading), Margaret Botrill, Miss White (evening registrar), unknown.
- 1961)
Still Life
Oil on canvas board 36.5 x 28.5 cm
Signed lower left
$500 - 1,000
- 84)
Watering the Plants
Oil on canvas board 39.5 x 50 cm
Signed lower left
$1,000 - 2,000
74 FRANCES IRWIN HUNT
(1890 - 1981)
Pot Plants
Oil on board 51 x 40.8 cm
Signed lower left indistinctly
$500 - 1,000
75 FRANCES IRWIN HUNT (1890 - 1981)
Drums
Oil on board 35.7 x 45.6 cm
Signed lower left
$500 - 1,000
76 IDA G EISE (1891 - 1978)
Fuchsias
Oil on canvas board 41.5 x 34 cm
Signed & dated 1942 lower right
$600 - 1,000
77 IDA G EISE (1891 - 1978)
Untitled, Central Auckland
Oil on canvas board 32.5 x 33.5 cm
Signed lower right
$400 - 800
78 IDA G EISE (1891 - 1978)
Corner of Kitchener St. and Bowen Ave, 1930
Oil on board 26.5 x 21.5 cm
Signed lower right
$400 - 800
79 GRACE BUTLER (1886 - 1962)
Sawmill, Te Kinga, West Coast
Oil on board 25.5 x 39.5 cm
Signed lower right
$2,000 - 3,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection
The Paul & Kerry Barber collection
80 GRACE BUTLER (1886 - 1962)
Southern Alps
Oil on canvas board 44.5 x 55 cm
Signed lower left
$500 - 1,000
PROVENANCE
Collection of CD Barraud
thence by descent
Grace Butler was a pioneering New Zealand landscape painter known for her bold depictions of the South Island’s dramatic scenery. Butler was drawn to the dramatic shifts of light and weather in the mountains, often painting outdoors in challenging conditions to capture the landscape’s changing moods.
Born in Invercargill, Butler trained at the Napier Technical and Art Schools 1903-1907 and later at Canterbury College School of Art 1910–1914. She became a working member of the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1915, exhibiting regularly in Christchurch, as well as in Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington. Although she never travelled internationally, her work featured in significant overseas exhibitions, including the Empire Exhibition in London 1924 and the Festival of Britain 1951. Grace Butler is recognised today as one of Canterbury’s leading twentieth-century landscape painters.
Signed lower right
$1,000 - 1,500
82
83 ALICE WHYTE (1885 - 1952)
Still Life, Roses Oil on board 43.5 x 54 cm
Signed lower left
$800 - 1,600
(1887 - 1944)
Ninety Mile Beach
Oil on canvas 26 x 33 cm
Signed lower right
$1,000 - 1,500
84 EILA REED (1876 - 1959)
Untitled, Boats
Watercolour 31 x 39.5 cm
$800 - 1,200
PROVENANCE
Private collection
Acquired from the Eila Reed (née W illiams) estate
Eila Reed (née Williams, 1876–1959) was a New Zealand artist whose work reflected the strong artistic traditions of her family. Born in Wellington, Eila was the sister of noted painter Maud Sherwood and, like her, developed a lifelong dedication to the arts. Eila honed her skills through private study and the encouragement of a creatively rich family environment. The work illustrated above is from a series titled Eila and Maud travels in Italy and France 1930’s.
85 MAUD SHERWOOD (1880 - 1956)
An Arab Market, 1928
Watercolour 23 x 35 cm
Signed lower right
$2,500 - 4,500
86 MAUD SHERWOOD (1880 - 1956)
The Rosetta de la Sangri, Toldeo, Spain, 1928
Watercolour 32 x 37.5 cm
$2,500 - 4,500
$800 - 1,200
Untitled Oil on canvas on panel
39.5 x 31.5 cm
Signed indistinctly lower left
$400 - 800
Watercolour 25 x 30
Signed lower left
$400 - 800
Hand painted ceramic tile
30.5 x 30.5 cm
Signed
$300 - 600
Gold mirror and grey/black opaque glass hand-cut 86 x 46 cm
Signed verso
$1,500 - 2,500
Hand painted ceramic tile
31 x 31 cm
Signed & dated 1977
$300 - 600
93
DAME DOREEN BLUMHARDT
(1914 - 2009)
Dish
Glazed stoneware 5.5 x 30 cm
Artist mark applied on base
$200 - 400
DAME DOREEN BLUMHARDT
(1914 - 2009)
Yellow Vase
Glazed stoneware 22.5 x 11 cm
Artist mark on base
$200 - 400
IDA H CAREY (1891 - 1982)
Portrait of a Woman
Oil on board 39 x 30 cm
Signed lower left
$1,000 - 2,000
$1,000 - 2,000
The Decanter, c. 1950
Wood engraving 15 x 11 cm
$400 - 800
Lot 49 Jenny Dolezel
The Single Minded Pursuit of More VIII
Finalists Exhibition
FREE ENTRY
22 May – 17 August 2025 10:00am – 4:30pm
New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata
Shed 11, Wellington Waterfront
fran@artcntr.co.nz internationalartcentre.co.nz
