Frances Hodgkins
Frances Mary Hodgkins (28 April 1869 in Dunedin - 13 May 1947) was a Modernist New Zealand landscape painter and textile designer. She attended Dunedin School of Art, worked as an art teacher and later studied in England.
Quotes
[edit]- In describing a town in Morocco, Tétouan: "The whiteness and pearliness of the town simply defies you-you can't get it pure and brilliant enough and the shadows drive one silly-you race after them , pause one frenzied moment to decide on a blue mauve yellow or green shadow-when up and over the wall and away and the wretched things gone for that day at least and you are gazing at a glaring blank wall and wondering why on earth you ever started to sketch it."
- As stated in: Art News Aotearoa's "Frances Hodgkins: Essence of Place," McCahon-Jones, Finn 2019. Art News Aotearoa. Published 9 May 2019.
- "But au fond-deep in my work-I am steadfast and steady as a rock... My present work is consistent-I shall sink or swim by it-I think swim-."
- As stated in: Bensemann, Leo, and Barbara Brooke (ed.) (1969). Frances Hodgkins Commemorative Issue. Ascent: A Journal of the Arts in New Zealand. Christchurch: Caxton Press & Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. p. 6.
- To her mother, 1921: "Don't let N Zealand wait to put up a memorial tablet to my memory—let her help me now whilst I am working at work that I hope will live after me."
- As stated in: Bensemann, Leo, and Barbara Brooke (ed.) (1969). Frances Hodgkins Commemorative Issue. Ascent: A Journal of the Arts in New Zealand. Christchurch: Caxton Press & Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. p. 8.
- It is one of the tragedies of leaving Home—New Zealand is too far away—it ceases to be real. New Zealanders like myself cannot help becoming de-nationalized—they have no country—it is sad—but true ... Art is like that—it absorbs your whole life and being. Few women can do it successfully. It requires enormous vitality. That is my conception of genius—vitality."
- As stated in: Bensemann, Leo, and Barbara Brooke (ed.) (1969). Frances Hodgkins Commemorative Issue. Ascent: A Journal of the Arts in New Zealand. Christchurch: Caxton Press & Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. p. 8.
- 1912: "I was born in Dunedin; we were an English family in a Scottish settlement."
- As stated in: Bensemann, Leo, and Barbara Brooke (ed.) (1969). Frances Hodgkins Commemorative Issue. Ascent: A Journal of the Arts in New Zealand. Christchurch: Caxton Press & Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. p. 9.
- 1895: "I am slowly settling down to an oldmaidship, and I have only one prominent idea and that is that nothing will interfere between me and my work."
- As stated in: Bensemann, Leo, and Barbara Brooke (ed.) (1969). Frances Hodgkins Commemorative Issue. Ascent: A Journal of the Arts in New Zealand. Christchurch: Caxton Press & Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. p. 11.
- To Dorothy Kate Richmond, 1903: "Come to Tetuan. Come—catch the next steamer, cancel all engagements, chuck the studio let everything go to the winds only come without a moment's delay and value for yourself all the dreams of beauty colour and sunshine..."
- As stated in: Bensemann, Leo, and Barbara Brooke (ed.) (1969). Frances Hodgkins Commemorative Issue. Ascent: A Journal of the Arts in New Zealand. Christchurch: Caxton Press & Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. p. 13.
- "Painting reduces me to tears and misery: peaks of ecstasy, depths of disillusion..."
- As stated in NZ On Screen's "Kaleidoscope - Frances Hodgkins," 1989. NZ On Screen. Published 1989.
- To her brother, August 1940: "My aspect of the family talent, or curse? has taken the form of a deep intellectual experience, a force which has given me no rest or peace but infinite joy and sometimes even rapture."
- As stated in Metro Magazine's "A Question of Authenticity: Are these Frances Hodgkins Artworks Real?," Walsh, Frances 2018. Metro Magazine. Published 8 June 2018.
