Frances Hodgkins: From Dunedin to Dorset
"I feel that if I had known what was before me, I should never have had the courage to begin."
Frances Hodgkins was one of the leading artists of the early twentieth century. Originally from New Zealand, she spent most of her professional life travelling across England and Europe, where her painting technique evolved from Impressionist to a distinctive and instantly recognisable Modernist style.
Frances was born in Dunedin, a city on the South Island of New Zealand, on 28th April 1869. She was the third of six children born to lawyer William Mathew Hodgkins and his Australian wife, Rachel Owen Parker. At that time, Dunedin was one of the country's most affluent cities and home to a thriving bohemian artistic community.
Though her father was a lawyer by profession, he was also a watercolour artist heavily involved in the city's art scene. Frances and her elder sister Isabel inherited his talent and passion for the subject. But, whilst Isabel and William painted traditional landscapes in the style of English Romantic artist J.M.W. Turner, Frances, preferring the human form, painted portraiture instead.
In 1893, when Frances was twenty-four, she began taking art classes with Italian artist Girolamo Nerli, who had moved to Dunedin and opened a teaching studio there. Under Nerli’s tutelage, Frances developed her portraiture skills, and his influence can be seen in The Girl with the Flaxen Hair. That same year, her elder sister Isabel married lawyer W.H. Field, and though she continued to paint, it was no longer her primary consideration. The choices made by Isabel had a significant impact on Frances and influenced her plans for the future.
Choosing independence and determined to earn her living, in 1895, Frances enrolled at the Dunedin School of Art and Design to qualify as an art teacher, and in 1896, began teaching classes of her own. Her father’s unexpected death in 1898 reinforced her ambitions, and she resolved to raise funds to travel to England.
Just three years later, Frances left New Zealand for England, enrolling at the City of London Polytechnic and, later that year, travelling to France to attend a summer school taught by Penzance-based artist Norman Garstin. It was the beginning of an enduring friendship with Garstin, who introduced her to other leading British artists at that time, including Stanhope Forbes and Lamorna Birch from the Newlyn School in Cornwall. Frances also formed a close friendship with fellow New Zealand artist Dorothy Richmond, who encouraged her to remain in Europe, where they travelled and painted together.
I found Miss Richmond already installed when I arrived and winning all hearts by her sweetness & beauty … I am a lucky beggar to have her for a travelling companion. She is so restful & sweet and I think we suit each other well.1
Under pressure from family to return home, Frances arrived back in New Zealand with Dorothy in November 1903, where they opened a studio exhibiting their European paintings. However, keen to further her international career, Frances left New Zealand again in January 1906, travelling between England and Europe before setting up a home and studio in Paris and spending summers on the French coast.
Although Frances’ early letters to her mother indicated she would return to New Zealand once her career was established, by the end of 1911, she wrote:
It’s on this side of the world that my work & future career lie.2
Frances returned to New Zealand for the final time in December 1912. But, by October 1913, was again on her way to Europe - first to Italy and then France. She remained in France until the outbreak of the First World War, which then necessitated a return to England, where she settled in St. Ives, a small fishing village in Cornwall. At that time, St Ives was home to an emerging artistic community, and Frances became friendly with artists much younger than herself, including Welsh artist Cedric Lockwood Morris.
When the war ended in 1918, Frances could resume her nomadic lifestyle. But, during the economic depression of the 1920s, like many other artists, she struggled financially and, feeling that she had no choice, booked a ticket to Melbourne to depart on 30th June 1925. Fortunately, before her departure, Jane Saunders, a friend and former pupil, introduced her to the director of the Calico Printers Association in Manchester, and Frances began working there as a fabric designer. It wasn’t easy work and kept her away from her beloved painting, but it meant that she was financially comfortable for the first time in years.
I can hardly believe it that the terror of these past distracted years has passed & that life has eased for me just when I had given up all hope.
Letter from Frances to her mother
Frances worked at the CPA until June 1927 and lived with Jane and her partner, Hannah Ritchie. But as her reputation as an artist grew and she became tired of the Manchester climate, she decided to leave England again. She travelled to Brittany with Jane and Hannah, where Cedric Lockwood Morris joined them.
That same year, Morris introduced Frances to the Seven & Five Society—a London art group founded in 1919 and so-called due to its twelve original members - seven painters and five sculptors. The Society hoped to promote traditional artistic sensibilities, but when young painter Ben Nicholson joined in 1924, followed by sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, it reformed into a modernist group. They invited Frances to become a member in 1929, and she remained with them until 1934.
In 1931, after travelling across Europe again, Frances returned to Bodinnick-by-Fowey - a small port town in south Cornwall, England. But, by December 1932, she had moved to Ibiza where she lived until the middle of 1933 before departing again for England. In the summer of 1935, she returned to Spain and the resort of Tossa de Mar in Catalonia. The town inspired her, and she wrote to her friend Dorothy Selby in November 1935:
[I] paint in the morning – dividing my time inside & outside the studio – this is the very charming part of a place like Tossa. So small and simple one can step into the old streets and have a look round – make a quick sketch & back to the Studio –repeating this little stunt perhaps 2-3 times during the morning.3
But with the threat of civil war looming in Spain, Frances relocated to France and, in May 1936, with further political unrest in Europe, returned once again to England, settling in Corfe Castle, a small Dorset village on the Isle of Purbeck.
With the Second World War outbreak in 1939, England’s coastline suffered from regular enemy attacks. Now in her seventies, Frances struggled physically and emotionally and took temporary refuge in a friend’s cottage in Bradford-on-Tone, Somerset.
In the years that followed the war, her health declined, and she moved into a hotel. Sadly, on 22nd March 1947, just weeks before her 78th birthday and suffering from a terminal illness, she moved into Herrison House Hospital, where she died two months later on 13th May.
Acknowledged as one of New Zealand's leading artists, Frances' paintings are still exhibited today, including at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Tate Britain, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Manchester Art Gallery.
I feel that if I had known what was before me, I should never have had the courage to begin.
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Sources and Recommended Reading:
Buchanan, Ian, Dunn, Michael and Eastmond Elizabeth, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings (Thames & Hudson, 1995)
Drayton, Joanne, Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing (Random House, 2005)
Evans, M., ed, Frances Hodgkins (Penguin Books, 1948)
Gill, L. ed, Letters of Frances Hodgkins (Auckland University Press, 1993)
Hammond Catherine & Kisler, Mary ed, Frances Hodgkins: European Journeys (Thames & Hudson, 2019)
Howell, A. R., Frances Hodgkins: four vital years (Rockcliff, 1951)
Kisler, Mary, Finding Frances Hodgkins (Massey University Press, 2019)
McCormick, E. H., Portrait of Frances Hodgkins (Auckland University Press, 1981)
McCormick, E. H., Works of Frances Hodgkins in New Zealand (Auckland City Art Gallery, 1954)
Niederman, Samantha, Frances Hodgkins (Eiderdown Books, 2019)
Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Rachel Hodgkins, July - August 1903, Rijsoord bij Rotterdam, Holland.
Letters from Frances Hodgkins to Rachel Hodgkins. Field, Isabel Jane, 1867-1950 : Correspondence of Frances Hodgkins and family / collected by Isabel Field. Ref: MS-Papers-0085-24. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Dorothy Selby. E H McCormick Archive of Frances Hodgkins' Letters, E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
What an intriguing life. With such wandering independence, she must not have had many possessions other than clothing and her art supplies.
One of my very favourite artists. I enjoyed reading you lovely biography of her, thanks.