[Outside the Pā]

Dorothy Richmond and Frances Hodgkins returned from England together in late December 1903, setting up a studio in Wellington and exhibiting there the following year. The pair also went on painting trips together, including to Rotorua in June 1905. Hodgkins, in a letter to her mother, made the objective of their visit to the Lakes District very clear – stating they wished to stay “right among the Maoris [sic]”, noting that they had “managed to get two good models already & have spent a busy day”. The unique thermal sights also struck the pair, commenting “Rotorua is a most amazing place & one has to step lively to avoid being scalded to death… There is a hot bath at the foot of the garden, free & we are told it will renew our youth & make us very sleep[y] & smooth.”

In looking to depict Māori, Richmond and Hodgkins were adapting the precepts of their training at the Newlyn School, to find local equivalents to the Cornish fisherfolk or peasants the group habitually sought out, favouring ordinary people and their labours and daily rhythms over grand historical subjects. Richmond similarly applied to the scene lessons she had learned about painting ‘en plein air’ and ‘sur le motif’ – in the open air and from the subject – in capturing this scene of children feeding chickens in front of a carved whare (house).

While best known as a watercolourist, this work reveals Richmond’s subtle command of oil paint. With its palette saturated in yellow, sage green and peachy brown it is a study in winter sunlight and its effects. Over a yellow base coat passages of colour are built up and, particularly in the foreground, dashed in poetically capturing the moment. The colouration and brushwork feel fresh – borrowing from the fluidity of watercolour – while bringing the gravitas of oil to the subject. The result is an intimate and engaging portrayal of Māori that reflects the impact of Realism, offering a counterpoint to the academicism of Gottfried Lindauer and Louis John Steele. The observation of the children bathed in sunlight creates a scene of quiet contemplation of the everyday, that is at once universal, but also particular to the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.

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