B.
Otira: It's a state of mind
Behind the scenes
It's always a good day when new artworks arrive at the gallery to enter the permanent collection and so it was when Grace Butler's large oil painting In the Otira Gorge turned up. It has been very generously bequeathed to the Gallery by her daughter, Grace Adams who recently passed away.
The work highlights a strong influence of Petrus van der Velden's 'Mountain Stream, Otira Gorge' series in its choice of subject matter and the muted tones that dominate. Just like van der Velden Butler made a real connection with the Arthur's Pass / Otira region. She spent many holidays in this area based at her family's bach known as Jack's Hut which she and her husband purchased in 1923.
Jack's Hut, Highway 73
Jack's Hut is on Highway 73 between Arthur's Pass township and the top of the Otira Gorge. The view below is of the upper reaches of the Bealey River right across the road from Jack's Hut so it's easy to see why she was drawn repeatedly to the region - it truly is a stunning area and well worth the stop next time you are driving over Arthur's Pass - the lower slopes of Mt Rolleston are just a short walk away also.
This painting makes a very welcome addition to our holdings of Butler's work as previously we only held one painting of the Arthur's Pass region by the artist which you can read about in Chris Pole's blog here.
Upper reaches of the Bealey River near Arthur's Pass.
Grace Butler 1886-1962 In the Otira Gorge (1925), oil on canvas. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, bequethed by Grace Adams, 2012.
Related
Exhibition
He Rau Maharataka Whenua: A Memory of Land
18 February 2018
Canterbury modernist landscape painting from the collections of Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery, poignantly revised from within a Kāi Tahu perspective
Collection
Ann Shelton Wintering, after a Van der Velden study, Otira Gorge
A small watercolour study of a mountain stream at Otira Gorge by van der Velden provided the inspiration for Ann Shelton’s Wintering, after a Van der Velden study, Otira Gorge. However, her response to the original study in the Hocken Library’s collection, which can be viewed in the next gallery, is monumental in scale and invites comparison with van der Velden’s large paintings of the same motif. Shelton elevates the mana and significance of the small study. In travelling to the Otira region to make her response to van der Velden’s work, Shelton follows in the footsteps of the many colonial photographers who worked in the region. Her contemporary view, with the cascading torrent of the Otira River, densely forested mountain slopes and threatening storm clouds, highlights the beauty of the Otira Gorge – a landscape that has changed little since it was photographed in the mid nineteenth century. (Van der Velden: Otira, February 2011)
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
Grace Butler Summertime, Arthur’s Pass
'Arthur’s Pass is a special birding area because of the preponderance of southern rātā [a forest tree with bright red flowers]. The nectar from the rātā was particularly attractive to kākā not just kea [two species of native parrots], so for hunting kākā it was a major zone. At Christmas the western side of the pass, as you’re dropping down into Otira, is often full of brilliant red rātā blossoms. It was a big mahika kai [food gathering area] up to the head of the valley towards Otira, although the route across was not a regular nor a favoured route. It was regarded as a possible route, and the rakatira [chief] Tarapuhi gave that information to Dobson [Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, a pioneer surveyor who came to New Zealand in 1850 and took the first Europeans over Arthur’s Pass] but even then they had to develop the whole corkscrew thing [the switchback road winding down steep scree slopes] to get carriages across it – on foot it was pretty difficult. That difficulty has been overcome by the new viaduct.' —Sir Tipene O’Regan
(He Rau Maharataka Whenua: A Memory of Land, 17 September 2016 – 18 February 2017)