B.
Wall to wall van der Velden
Behind the scenes
Right now, visitors to the Gallery have an excellent opportunity to view three key paintings by Petrus van der Velden in the current Brought To Light hang, and all without even having to take a single step.
It's my favourite spot in the collection galleries – the doorway between the New Arrivals gallery and the Connoisseurs' Room. If I linger here I am rewarded with a remarkably rich view of three important paintings from key stages in van der Velden's career. Directly in front in the Colonial Room is the magnificent Mountain stream, Otira Gorge (1893); to the right, the early maritime painting The Leuvehaven, Rotterdam (1867) is to be viewed in the Connoisseurs' Room, and beyond that the massive Dutch Funeral sits imposingly on the far wall of the Storytellers exhibition space.
Mountain stream, Otira Gorge will be moving downstairs to form part of the Van der Velden: Otira exhibition in February, so this particular sweet spot has a limited life. I recommend trying it out.
The sweet spot, with all three van der Veldens in view.
Related
Exhibition
Brought to Light: A New View of the Collection
February 2010 – February 2011
Our upstairs collection galleries have undergone an exciting and dynamic redesign – the first full rehang of the collection since Christchurch Art Gallery opened in its new building in 2003.
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Mountain Stream, Otira Gorge
The Rotterdam-born Petrus van der Velden arrived in New Zealand in 1890. Following his first visit to Otira Gorge in January 1891, he became engrossed with this subject, and painted its powerful, surging torrents many times over the next two years.
This painting was purchased by Gilbert Anderson, a leader in New Zealand’s frozen meat industry, also involved with the Canterbury Society of Arts. Anderson sold it to the Society in 1912; it was purchased from them in 1996 through the Community Trust and Christchurch Art Gallery Trust.
(Treasury: A Generous Legacy, 18 December 2015 – 27 November 2016)
Collection
![Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral]](/media/cache/58/29/58295f2c69a43061863860a247424aba.jpg)
Petrus van der Velden Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral]
Research for the exhibition Closer (16 December 2017 – 19 August 2018) resulted in the restoration of this work's orginal title. In Dutch 'Begrafenis in den winter op het eiland Marken' and in English 'Burial in the winter on the island of Marken'.
Combining a wintry landscape with an equally bleak portrayal of loss, this painting has captivated many visitors since joining the Gallery’s collection in 1932. Small details, like snow-dusted shoes, noses red with cold, and a woman folded over by grief, are observed with such accuracy and tenderness by Petrus van der Velden that this funeral procession on an isolated Dutch island feels just as real as it looks. However, its most important figure – the reason for the gathering and for all the grief we see – remains unseen. The deceased, said to have been a drowned local fisherman, is present only in the dark shape of the coffin – and in the faces of those left behind.
(Absence, May 2023)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden The Leuvehaven, Rotterdam
Petrus van der Velden turned to painting full-time in 1867 after six years as a struggling self-employed lithographer. “The first year was the hardest, and at the end I had done a picture; the harbour and the ships”, he later recalled. Exhibited in Rotterdam and then the Antwerp Salon, it sold to “an English gentleman … for 300 guilders [£25]. Quite a fortune!”
(Out of Time, 23 September 2023 – 28 April 2024)