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Hocken Digital Collections

Friends, Double Portrait

Details

Accession Number73/169CreatorHodgkins, Frances Mary, 1869-1947Also known asDouble Portrait, or FriendsDouble PortraitDate1922 & 1925

Description

Media & Size610 x 750mm (sight)740 x 895mm (framed)Inscriptionsl.l. with brush: Hodgkins; verso: [various labels] label: Bourlet & Son, London; label: City of Manchester Art Gallery 15137; label: Double Portrait by Frances Hodgkins lent by Jane Saunders, 12 Victoria Rd Fallow Weld, Manchester; label: Isle of Purbeck Arts Club; label: Arts Council of Great Britain; label: Frances Hodgkins Double Portrait; label: Ernest Brown & Phillips, London; label: ACAG; label: QEII of NZ; on various labels in ink (Brasch’s hand): Brasch 36 a Heriot Row Dunedin. Hannah Ritchie left, Jane Saunders right. Charles Brasch DunedinDescriptionShowing a knowledge of the elongated figures and oval eyes which characterised the work of Amadeo Modigliani, this painting also recalls the flattened forms and bright colour of the Henri Matisse, whose retrospective Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947) had seen in 1910. Double Portrait brings to the fore Hodgkinss latent interest in abstract pattern-making in the treatment of the fabric of the womens dresses. Shortly afterwards she would work as a textile designer for the Calico Printers Association in Manchester.

The portrait commemorates a long association. Hannah Ritichie (on the left) had joined Hodgkinss painting class in Montreuil in 1911 and the following year brought her friend Dorothy, later Jane Saunders (on the right) to St Valery-sur-Somme. The couple attended later classes in England and France, and frequently had Hodgkins to stay when both had become art teachers at Manchester High School for Girls. While visiting them, Hodgkins herself studied briefly with the English Post-Impressionist Walter Sickert, known for his paintings of theatrical or music hall subjects often arranged in couples or pairs.

Hannah Ritchie and Jane Saunders separated in 1931, but Hannah kept the painting until 1957 when she sold it through the Leicester Galleries to Charles Brasch.ProvenanceCharles Brasch Bequest, 1973CitationFrances Hodgkins, 1869-1947, Friends, Double Portrait, 1922-1925, oil on canvas, 610x770mm, Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago, 73/169, Charles Brasch bequest, 1973.

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsRitchie, Hannah -- PortraitsSaunders, Jane -- PortraitsWomen -- Portraits

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Friends, Double Portrait

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