Historically Important Oil Painting By Cook’s Official Artist Fails To Sell

A 246-year-old oil painting of a Maori man in Dusky Sound, done by the official artist on Captain James Cook’s second voyage of exploration to the South Pacific and New Zealand, has failed to sell at an art auction in Auckland.

William Hodges was on Captain Cook’s Royal Navy sloop HMS Resolution from 1772 to 1775 when it visited New Zealand after three months at sea. In Dusky Sound, where there were plentiful supplies of fresh water, seafood and wild game, Hodges prepared a drawing of the sound from which he made the oil painting in 1777 after Resolution returned to England.

He named the painting A Maori Before A Waterfall in Dusky Bay and it is considered to be the beginning of oil paintings of New Zealand scenes.

At the sale of Important and Rare Art at the International Art Centre in Parnell tonight there were no bids and it was passed in although it may be sold by negotiation. It was earlier thought it could sell for between $800,000 and $1.2 million.

Auctioneer and director of the International Art Centre Richard Thomson, said the Hodges work was historically unique.

“This painting is of great significance and being the first oil painting of a New Zealand scene, it is unique and incredibly important.

He said an Australian authority on Hodges had told him if the work had featured an Australian scene, it would have sold for between $8 million and $12 million.

“He believes it is one of the most important paintings to be offered in New Zealand.

“This is an absolute gem and Captain Cook is quoted as saying Hodges was employed ‘to make drawings and paintings of such places in the countries we should touch at, as might be proper to give a more perfect idea thereof, than could be formed from written descriptions only’,” he said.

He said there was a lot of interest in other works in the sale but galleries throughout the country were going through a slight downturn in sales as buyer interest was diverted by other events.

At the same sale an oil painting by Charles Frederick Goldie, the leading New Zealand artist of Maori kaumatua (respected elders) sold for slightly over $1.2 million, including commission and GST.

Memories Tearara, was painted and signed by Goldie in 1933 and was of a chieftainess of the Arawa Tribe of Rotorua.

Bidding for the Goldie was fierce with 17 bids from the auction room and around the country.

Mr Thomson said such works of art rarely came on the market and although the Hodges work did not sell, there was a lot of interest in it.

The Goldie work is likely to be a protected object of art which cannot leave New Zealand without approval from the Government’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Still Life, a major oil on canvas work by internationally renowned Dunedin-born New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins, was also passed in without reaching its reserve of $450,000 but Mr Thomson said a private sale may be negotiated.

Hodgkins is thought to have painted Still Life at Pound Farm in Higham, Suffolk, the seventeenth century home of her firm friends, British artist Sir Cedric Morris, whose father played rugby for Wales, and Morris’s partner Arthur Lett-Haines.

A record price was achieved for Collapse, a 1944 oil painting by New Zealand artist Lois White who died in 1984 aged 81. Bidding began at $90,000 and after 24 highly competitive bids, it sold for $288,000, including commission and GST.

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