Looking At Frances Hodgkins
By Mirabelle Field. Art History 314: New Zealand Art and Curating. Semester One, 2018. Grade: A+ 94/100.
Describe the primary formal or stylistic and thematic characteristics of the work of any ONE New Zealand-born expatriate artist from the late 19th century until the 1960s.
Frances Hodgkins is widely considered to be one of the most important and well known New Zealand-born expatriate artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hodgkins travelled to England in 1901, in search of a fresh modernist perspective for her art and to gain insight into the cultural roots that Europe held for her.[1] During her time abroad, Frances Hodgkins came under the influence of several artistic movements which resulted in a complex, and often shifting, artistic style. This notion will be explored through the works Summer, 1912 (figure one); Belgian Refugees, 1916 (figure two); Lancashire Children, 1927 (figure three) and Self Portrait: Still Life, 1935 (figure four). Spanning a significant portion of Hodgkins’ oeuvre, these works illustrate a host of formal and thematic characteristics that Hodgkins focused on at the time of their conception.
Figure One. Frances Hodgkins, Summer, 1912, (watercolour and charcoal, 586 x 498mm), Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Frances Hodgkins became imbued with a deep interest in the French Impressionist movement during her time struggling to establish herself in the European art market in the first decade of the twentieth century.[2] Indeed, her 1912 work, Summer, clearly displays the influence that the French Impressionists had on the development of her artistic style, for extremely sketchy, loose brushstrokes are used to render forms that appear to dissolve into one another and produce a dappled effect, reminiscent of sunlight.[3] Summer is a three-figure composition in an outdoor setting that is consistent with the Impressionists focus on the movement of nature and the effects of falling light, which is perhaps most apparent through the employment of long brushstrokes and streaks of paint that Hodgkins overlays with delicate black outlines.[4] In this manner, Hodgkins has clearly followed closely with the techniques of the Impressionist movement which so fascinated her during her time as an artist in France, with she herself mentioning a particular interest in Monet, Pissarro, Degas and Sisley.[5] However, in her choice of medium she proves herself to be an artist apart from this group While the Impressionists generally chose to work in oil paint, Hodgkins opts for charcoal and watercolour, which allows her to render form through a delicate wash of colour. This is clearly seen in the flowing dress of the baby, which is executed in palest pink, and contrasted against the more concentrated dabs of colour in the darkened sleeve of the nursemaid. Indeed, although her colours have been diluted through the use of the watercolour medium, they remain impactful, clearly differentiated and evocative of the natural world.[6] Indeed, June Opie asserted that Hodgkins’ true genius as a painter, and the reason why she has been celebrated both in her original home of New Zealand and overseas, is her sensitivity to colour, which is clearly apparent in Summer where a subtle suffusion of colour is accented by patches of delicate lilac and green.[7] The focal point of the composition is the head of the baby, which draws the attention of the other two figures. In fact, the faces of the two women to either side of the child are rendered in highly indistinct brushstrokes, and their facial features are barely outlined in comparison to the relatively detailed face of the child. Indeed, in line with the interests of female Impressionists such as Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, this could be a comment on the way in which women’s lives became subordinate to those of their children during this time period; an indication of the loss of self to the needs of the child.[8] Both Morisot and Cassatt repeatedly chose to paint female figures at leisure, or often involved in the tasks of motherhood, and Summer could also be said to evoke Morisot in its delicate nature and Cassatt through the observation of the private world of women.[9] The depiction of engrossed caregivers in combination with the glowing sunshine of the outdoor setting could be seen to celebrate maternal and domestic side of life, identifying this with values of health, well-being, and the nurturing of the future of society.[10] Therefore, Hodgkins’ 1912 piece, Summer, exemplifies the optimism and celebration of the natural which characterises the thematic concerns of much Impressionist painting, in combination with her own unique formal characteristics epitomized through the medium of watercolour and charcoal.
Figure Two. Frances Hodgkins, Belgian Refugees, 1916, (oil on canvas, 875 x 950mm), Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
Hodgkins’ interest in the subject matter and technique of the Impressionists influenced her artistic practices for many years, but by 1916, when she completed Belgian Refugees, she had clearly come under the spell of the Post-Impressionists. By now, Hodgkins was experimenting with gestural brushstrokes, thick outlines and an arbitrary use of colour. Wishing to escape the dangerous, fractious nature of wartime Europe, Hodgkins moved to the artistic colony of St. Ives, and began to document those around her. Belgian Refugees was one of the first works that Hodgkins created using oil paint, tracing her move towards the full embrace of modernist European movements, and away from the more traditional styles concurrently favoured in New Zealand.[11] Indeed, the innovative stylistic technique of Belgian Refugees has been compared to the early masterpieces of Pablo Picasso; most notably his 1905 painting Les Saltimbanques.[12] The similarities in the formal characteristics of these two works are clear; the downcast eyes, heavy outline and the contrast between having solidly developed figures set against a sketchily rendered background. Yet, another similarity can also be seen: an unavoidable sense of melancholy surrounds these figures. The rootless existence that wartime has condemned these Belgian Refugees to is mirrored in the atmosphere of Les Saltimbanques, where each could be interpreted as a comment on the cruelty and hardship that displaced persons often face. Clearly, Belgian Refugees is an evocative and emotive piece which aims to explore the hardships experienced by women and children during wartime.[13] The composition features a family unit, although the father figure is conspicuously absent. The focal point rests on the breast-feeding figure of the mother, her gaze downturned, looking outside of the picture plane, and framed by an older woman who stares dejectedly at the ground, her face in shadow. A small child to the right is rendered in highly sketch-like manner, her form outlined in swirling strokes of paint; another to the far left remains separate from the group, the male child apart from his family. The sombre colours that comprise the background of this work, and the use of strong black, ensures that the red of the mother’s jacket and the golden hair of the baby she cradles are given vivid emphasis .[14] While this figure group remains huddled together against the swirling grey of the sky, and the way in which they are composed leads to an intimate reading, and the note of resigned stoicism in their upright posture and blank faces cannot be ignored.[15] Set adrift on the tide of war, separated from their country and their people, forced into a difficult life, these refugees refuse to surrender. Here, Hodgkins has certainly earned the title that Eggleton bestows upon her as ‘a gifted and empathetic painter of women and girls’.[16] The empathy presented to the plight of the Belgian people cannot be separated from this work. Thus, in Belgian Refugees Frances Hodgkins has clearly demonstrated her ever evolving stylistic characteristics, here referencing Post-Impressionism, and the work of Picasso, as well as a distinct interest in the depiction of women and children in general, and specifically those who are affected by the plight of warfare.
Figure Three. Frances Hodgkins, Lancashire Children, 1927, (oil on canvas, 740 x 610mm), Whitford and Hughes Gallery, London.
During the interwar years, Frances Hodgkins continues to develop and change her stylistic technique and her influences change rapidly and, often, radically. This can be seen clearly in her 1927 painting Lancashire Children, which displays innovative stylistic elements relatively unprecedented in Hodgkins’ work. Gone are the delicate watercolours characterised by Summer, gone too are the expressionistic oils of Belgian Refugees, for here the artist applies oil paint in a thickness and opacity that provides the figures with a three-dimensional quality. This impasto technique, coupled with the frame that borders the four children inside it, and the vase that rests upon its edge, all imbue the piece with a heightened awareness around the act of viewing by both the onlooker and the subjects. Therefore, the subjects appear to the onlooker as a view through a window, a theme which would become frequent in Hodgkins’ later work, but which is documented here in its earliest, most experimental format.[17] This was an idea that was being employed by members of the Seven and Five society, which, two years later, in 1929, Hodgkins was invited to join.[18] Through the device of the frame, Hodgkins explores the relationship between exterior and interior, and the role that this physical passage between them plays, creating ambiguity between the idea of the frame as a border, and the window as an opening.[19] In addition, by setting a group portrait outdoors, Hodgkins exploits the paradoxical relationship between the external and internal.[20] Furthermore, by placing the figures in the very closely packed space of the immediate foreground, Hodgkins is able to block movement into the landscape behind them.[21] As a result, the viewer is only afforded a glimpse into the tantalisingly bright blue of the landscape beyond the figures, which contrasts against the sombre ochre tones of the figure group. In terms of thematic characteristics, the creation of this piece in the post-war climate of Europe is important. Hodgkins’ experiences during the war led her to greater experimental heights; she no longer wished to simply depict readily accessible natural appearances, but to create more expressive pieces of art that relied on her own imaginative capabilities to create a unique reality.[22] Hodgkins’ unusual and innovative combination of still life with landscape and portraiture has characterised much of her career, and led to many of her most acclaimed works.[23] Thus, the intense and highly expressive use of thickly impasted paint in Lancashire Children, in conjunction with its exploration of the complex themes of the interior and the exterior, provides another marker for Hodgkins’ continual stylistic and thematic innovation.
Figure Four. Frances Hodgkins, Self Portrait: Still Life, c.1935, (oil on cardboard, 762 x 635mm), Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Finally, a later work which epitomises yet another stylistic and thematic development in Hodgkins’ prolific career is that of Self Portrait: Still Life, from around 1935. This is an unusual work which crosses genre boundaries in the incorporation of aspects of both the metaphorical self-portrait and still life. Featuring a series of objects imposed upon a seemingly jumbled background of brightly coloured fabric this work offers a sense of decorative abstraction due to the fact that the items, including a flower complete with a vase and a contrastingly dark coloured belt, appear to float on a sketchily painted green background. The element of self-portraiture is foremost indicated by the title, as is the case with another similar piece by Hodgkins, Still Life: Self Portrait from around the same time. These titles can seem immediately contentious due to their inherent nature as seemingly disparate genres, yet it is clear with further investigation that what is presented here is a depiction of self, albeit one which goes against the traditional forms of naturalistic representation. The decision to compare her person and identity to a series of jumbled objects is an ambiguous statement and brings into question the depersonalisation she may have felt as an artist outside of her home territory at a time when New Zealand Nationalism was flourishing. This piece highlights the potentially fraught sense of identity that came with being an expatriate artist, and a woman, at this time. Interestingly, many of the objects that Hodgkins has chosen to make her presence manifest, are typically symbolic of femininity, such as a bowl and pink rose in the centre of the piece and a mixture of brightly-coloured fabrics, which have been interpreted as scarves, and a single pink shoe which Iain Buchanan describes as ‘marvellously frivolous- if not fetishistic’.[24] Thus, all the objects which Hodgkins has chosen to represent herself through in this piece act in a highly symbolic manner, bringing layers of meaning to this piece which require examination. For example, the seemingly simplistic symbol of the stemmed rose and bowl are evocative of the passing of time and the ephemeral nature of life, and perhaps is the result of Hodgkins’ advanced age at the time of painting.[25] Furthermore, as Elizabeth Eastmond asserts, the ‘frivolous’ pink shoe goes so far as to suggest disparate notions of both the self, the feminine, and the suggestively erotic, when viewed in the context of the historical tradition of the dangling slipper.[26] Clearly, Self Portrait: Still Life is a highly complex work wherein Hodgkins explored ideas and identities that the traditional mode of self-portraiture would not have facilitated. Here, Hodgkins manifests herself in endless ways, allowing each object to convey a part of her to the audience. This piece goes beyond the mirror of physical appearance to create a portrait that transverses boundaries of representation, genre and depiction. However, Hodgkins makes up for the lack of recognisable personal depiction by revealing herself through the act of creation.[27]
Frances Hodgkins was one of the most influential and important New Zealand-born expatriate artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She continually experimented with stylistic techniques and developed thematic characteristics in innovative and distinctive ways. It is clear that the movements of Impressionism; and particularly the work of Monet, Degas, Pissarro and Sisley; Post-Impressionism, with a focus on Picasso and an interest in Cezanne and Van Gogh, and the Seven and Five society all had a distinct and profound impact on her stylistic developments. These influences, and surely many more, culminated in the creation of Hodgkins’ unique method of blending distinct genres in one painting, and allowed her to continue to change her artistic practices throughout her lifetime. This essay has focused on only a few of her many artistic pieces and transformations, but it is clear through these examples that Hodgkins’ primary formal and thematic characteristics are varied, original and vital to the development of a diverse artistic oeuvre. As such, through the works Summer, 1912; Belgian Refugees, 1916; Lancashire Children, 1927 and Self Portrait: Still Life, 1935, it is apparent that Frances Hodgkins was a unique and important expatriate artist who deserves recognition and celebration both in New Zealand and abroad for her contribution to the history of art.
[1] Barton, The Expatriates: Frances Hodgkins, 7.
[2] Johnstone, Frances Hodgkins: Femme du Monde, 75.
[3] Buchanan, Dunn and Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings, 104.
[4] Buchanan, Dunn and Eastmond, 104.
[5] Buchanan, Dunn and Eastmond, 31.
[6] Kirker, New Zealand Women Artists- A Survey of 150 years, 45.
[7] Opie, “Frances Hodgkins, ‘The Expatriate’, In Her Centennial Year”, 880.
[8] Buchanan, Dunn, Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings, 104.
[9] Gerrish-Nunn, Pamela, “Frances Hodgkins: A Question of Identity”, 11.
[10] Buchanan, Dunn, Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings, 25.
[11] Gerrish-Nunn, Pamela, “Frances Hodgkins: A Question of Identity”, 12.
[12] Kirker, New Zealand Women Artists- A Survey of 150 years, 47.
[13] Drayton, Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing, 161.
[14] Drayton, 161.
[15] Drayton, Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing, 161.
[16] Eggleton, Towards Aotearoa, 38.
[17] Buchanan, Dunn, Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings, 43.
[18] Buchanan, Dunn, Eastmond,124.
[19] Whitford and Hughes, Frances Hodgkins 1896-1947, 9.
[20] Whitford and Hughes, 9.
[21] Buchanan, Dunn, Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings, 43.
[22] Kirker, New Zealand Women Artists- A Survey of 150 years, 47.
[23] Johnstone, Frances Hodgkins: Femme du Monde, 121.
[24] Buchanan, Dunn, Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings, 146.
[25] Eastmond, “Metaphor and the Self Portrait”, 665.
[26] Eastmond, 664.
[27] McCormick, E.H., Portrait of Frances Hodgkins, 5.
Bibliography:
Barton, Christina. The Expatriates: Frances Hodgkins. Wellington: Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, 2005.
Borzello, Frances. Seeing Ourselves: Women’s Self Portraits. London: Thames and Hudson, 2016.
Borzello, Frances. A World of our Own: Women as Artists. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000.
Buchanan, Ian, Michael Dunn, Elizabeth Eastmond. Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings . Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2001.
Drayton, Joanne. Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing. Auckland: Random House, 2005.
Eastmond, Elizabeth. “Metaphor and the Self Portrait.” Art History Vol. 22, No. 5 (December, 1999): 656-675.
Eggleton, David. Towards Aotearoa. Auckland: Reed Publishing (NZ) LTD, 2007.
Gerrish-Nunn, Pamela. “Frances Hodgkins: A Question of Identity.” Woman’s Art Journal Vol. 15, No. 2 (Autumn, 1994 – Winter, 1995): 9-13.
Gill, Linda. Letters of Frances Hodgkins. Auckland: University of Auckland Press, 1993.
Johnstone, Alexa. Frances Hodgkins: Femme du Monde. Dunedin: Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2009.
Kirker, Anne. New Zealand Women Artists- A survey of 150 years. NSW: Craftsman House BVI LTD, 1993.
McCormick, E.H. Portrait of Frances Hodgkins. Auckland: University of Auckland Press, 1981.
Opie, June. “Frances Hodgkins, ‘the Expatriate’, in her Centennial Year.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts Vol. 117, No. 5160 (November, 1969): 874-888.
Parkin, Jane, Jill Trevelyan. Frances Hodgkins. Wellington: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 1993.
Whitford and Hughes. Frances Hodgkins 1869-1947. London: Whitford and Hughes, 1990.
About the Author:
Mirabelle Field is a current BA (Hons) student in Art History. Her research interests are issues of gender in art and female artists throughout history. Her honours dissertation will focus on the ‘Guerilla Girls’ with a case study of the current Auckland Art Gallery exhibition.
