A candle in a dark room

Recent research by Peter Simpson suggests that this painting was painted in 1947, not 1943 as previously thought. McCahon painted it to record his first meeting with the poet James K. Baxter. The revision of the year it was painted suggests that they met later than originally thought or that it may have been painted in retrospect.

Regardless of these chronological details, the painting demonstrates McCahon’s high esteem for Baxter. This regard was reciprocated. The poet wrote to McCahon in November 1947 ‘I think you put onto canvas something I know about N.Z., but have not learned to say. The raw vitality and brutal simplification.’ (McCahon's Visible Mysteries, 2004)

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