Frances Hodgkins: Leitmotif

n.(Leit . motif) Recurring image or theme

Frances Hodgkins (1869 - 1947) was ahead of her time in her choice of lifestyle, making her mere existence extremely challenging at times.  Despite these challenges, she achieved greatness as one of Britain's great modernist artists and New Zealand's most celebrated women artists.

Leitmotif is a fascinating illustration of the artist's recurring use of motifs and techniques, particularly her still lifes. Favourite jugs, bowls, plants and pieces of fabric appear again and again, in some instances with only slight changes in composition, and yet such is Hodgkins skill that each work has a form and charm of its own.

Image: Frances Hodgkins, Red Jug (detail), 1931, oil on canvas, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki