Partners in Paint

It is in words and paint that the relationship between Frances Hodgkins and Dorothy Kate Richmond is so vividly caught for a time, like a gossamer piece of perfection ‘too too happy to last’. They travelled and lived together much of the time they were abroad between 1901 and 1903 and repeated this in New Zealand from 1904 to 1906, but their association and the impact of their partnership was to last their life times. Hodgkins was enthralled by her compatriot and her letters home, and to Richmond when they were separated, glow with romance and passion. ‘I do so enjoy your letters,’ wrote Richmond to Hodgkins while she was in Morocco at the beginning of 1903. ‘You write in the same style as you paint, with brilliant patches of colour and any amount of snap and go, your description of the Moors, and the oranges and the onions make my mouth water, so will your pictures when I see them.’

Hodgkins felt immensely happy at this time. She was freshly experiencing the fascination of Europe and the Middle East and was living with a woman she adored. In her work she captured the quaint, romantic scenes of medieval market places, the cathedrals, the bridges, the sights, the sounds, the people, but this was also the backdrop to her many adventures with D K Richmond and her cameo stories home. Over the early period of their painting partnership Hodgkins forged the pattern of her future life and in Richmond found her model of companionship and perfect womanhood. It is in Richmond’s paintings from this period that the impact of their relationship is most apparent – not so much in subject matter but in the flair and increased confidence with which they are executed. This is due in part to the European context in which they were produced and to the teaching she received at the Newlyn School, but Hodgkins’ encouragement and advice no doubt contributed greatly. It was Hodgkins’ example of using watercolour that encouraged Richmond to become an avid exponent of the medium and it was her professionalism and teaching that Richmond took as guiding ambitions. For both women it was a richly productive and exciting creative partnership.

They first met at Norman Garstin’s summer school in the French village of Caudebec-en-Caux in 1901. Here their ardor for capturing traditional village life began. From 1901 to 1903 they toured the sketching grounds of Europe, painting pictures for a ready market at home. Between them they visited England, Scotland, France, Italy, Morocco, Belgium and Holland. Their arrival back in New Zealand in December 1903 ended a period of exciting exploration. In Wellington, they opened an art school on Bowen Street. Richmond found roots in the capital’s artistic milieu; Hodgkins did not. A broken engagement to Thomas Wilby compounded her restless desire to return to Europe. But it was during this time of limbo that she and Richmond produced some remarkable studies of Maori women. Together they travelled to Rotorua in 1905 to paint.  In traditional Maori life they found an iconographic echo of peasant cultures in Europe.  At the beginning of 1906, Hodgkins said her farewells to Richmond and New Zealand. One woman’s artistic ambitions would now be pursued at home, the other’s abroad.

Curated by Dr Joanne Drayton