Two Significant, Rare NZ Paintings Each Expected To Bring More Than $1 Million

Two paintings, possibly the most significant and historically important in New Zealand, are each expected to bring over $1 million at an art auction in Auckland later this month.

William Hodges was the official artist on Britain’s Royal Navy sloop, HMS Resolution, for Captain James Cook’s second voyage to the South Pacific and New Zealand from 1772 to 1775. His 1777 oil painting, A Maori before a Waterfall in Dusky Bay, was done when HMS Resolution returned to England. It is probably one of, if not the first oil painting of a New Zealand scene by a professional artist. It is also considered one of the most historically significant paintings of a New Zealand landscape.

It will be offered at a sale of Important and Rare Art at the International Art Centre in Parnell, Auckland, on July 25.

The sale will also feature Memories Tearara, a 1933 signed oil painting on canvas by Charles Frederick Goldie of a chieftainess of the Arawa Tribe of Rotorua.

International Art Centre director, Richard Thomson who will conduct the sale, said paintings of such historic significance, particularly the Hodges work, are very rarely offered to the public and the opportunity to purchase such rare works is unlikely to arise again.

“This really is a golden opportunity to acquire very fine and important works of art.

“The Hodges work is probably one of the earliest pieces of fine art ever done of New Zealand by an offshore artist. We are expecting it to sell for between $800,000 and $1.2 million but with the interest we have already seen, it could go for more.

“Captain Cook is quoted as saying Hodges was employed: ‘to make drawings and paintings of such places in the countries we should touch at, as might be proper to give a more perfect idea thereof, than could be formed from written descriptions only’.

“It is one of the most important works of art ever to be offered for sale in New Zealand,” Mr Thomson said.

“It’s the last work of art by Hodges to be held in private hands and this is probably one of the most exciting catalogues of rare works we have put together in the 50 years we have been selling fine art to New Zealand and overseas art fans.

He said an Australian art expert who is an authority on Hodges, has told him if the Hodges work had featured an Australian scene, it would bring between $8 million and $12 million.

“He believes it is one of the most important paintings to be offered in New Zealand.

“The work by Goldie is predicted to bring up to $1.5 million but as with the Hodges, it’s such a fine piece it’s hard to estimate the final sale price. Goldie is the pre-eminent artist of New Zealand Maori kaumatua (respected elders) and his works regularly bring record prices.”

The auction includes Still Life, a major oil on canvas work by renowned New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins, believed to have been painted at Pound Farm in Higham, Suffolk, the seventeenth century home of her firm friend, British artist Sir Cedric Morris and his partner Arthur Lett-Haines.

Other offerings are a screen print by Banksy and works by Don Binney, Michael Smither, Gretchen Albrecht, Michael Hight, Robert Ellis, Ralph Hotere, Allen Maddox, Peter Stichbury, Toss Woollaston, Garth Tapper's large-scale masterpiece The Law and Its People.

Note: Images can be downloaded from the International Art Centre:

www.internationalartcentre.co.nz

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