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Anne-Sophie Ninino restores the historic frame of Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken by Petrus van der Velden. Photo: John Collie
Design a new frame for one of the city’s favourite paintings!
Behind the scenes
Ākonga from Years 3–8 are invited to enter a competition to design an imaginative frame for one of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū’s most treasured paintings, Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken (also known as The Dutch Funeral).
This iconic 150-year-old painting is having its original gold frame restored by our expert conservator, Anne-Sophie Ninino. Competion winners will get to go behind-the-scenes to meet Anne-Sophie and apply a piece of gold leaf to the frame.
![Petrus van der Velden Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral] 1872. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, gift of Henry Charles Drury van Asch, 1932](/media/cache/d2/ba/d2ba37b3c52081bc1c24e08a85569892.jpg)
Petrus van der Velden Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral] 1872. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, gift of Henry Charles Drury van Asch, 1932
Who can enter?
Children aged 7–12 years (Years 3–8).
One winner will be selected from Years 3–4, Years 5–6 and Years 7–8.
The prize
Three children will get to meet expert conservator Anne-Sophie Ninino and apply a piece of gold leaf to the real frame.
Prize winners will meet Anne-Sophie at 10am on Thursday 17 April (during the school holidays). A parent or caregiver is welcome to attend with each child. A photograph of the children gilding the frame will be made available to media for publication.
How to enter
Design a frame using any materials – and plenty of imagination! All entries must be on the official entry form.
Drop completed entries in the drop-box in the Gallery foyer or hand them to the front counter by Wednesday 9 April.
Winning entries will be announced on Friday 11 April.
Entries that do not win a prize can be collected from the Gallery until 1 May.
Any questions?
Email emma@christchurchartgallery.org.nz
Anne-Sophie Ninino with the historic frame of Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken by Petrus van der Velden. Photo: John Collie
For Teachers and Parents
About the painting
This large oil painting was made by Petrus van der Velden in 1872. Set in a wintry landscape on an isolated Dutch island called Marken, the scene shows a group of people walking in a funeral procession across the snow-covered ground. They are dressed in dark-coloured clothes and looking sad because they are mourning the death of a local fisherman who drowned. Two men push the coffin, while the mourners follow. In the distance, the snow-covered roofs of the village are pale against the heavy, grey sky.
The painting is nearly three-metres long, and is usually shown in its beautiful gold frame. Once, the Gallery hung it in an exhibition without its gold frame – it looked very different, and some visitors complained that they wanted to see the painting with its frame!
About conservation
Caring for the city’s taonga is an important part of our mahi at Christchurch Art Gallery. Our conservation team preserves and repairs artworks, protecting them from wear and tear over time. Taking care of our treasures means we can all enjoy them – now and for years to come.
Related
Exhibition
Van der Velden: Otira
11 February – 22 February 2011
This exhibition brings together a comprehensive selection of Van der Velden's paintings portraying the wild, untouched natural beauty of the Otira region's mountainous landscape.
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)
Commentary
Something’s Missing
It’s among the best-loved paintings in the Gallery’s collection, celebrated for the connections and conversations it generates between different generations. People who, as children, encountered Petrus van der Velden’s Burial in the winter on the island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral] (1872) in the neoclassical spaces of the old Robert McDougall Art Gallery now bring their own grandchildren to Te Puna o Waiwhetū to see it.
Commentary
The Dutch Funeral, Retitled
When you think about it, The Dutch Funeral is a peculiar title for a work painted in the Netherlands, by a Dutch artist. You could imagine such a work being titled The Funeral, or A Funeral; or even more likely, A Funeral at a Specified Place or possibly At a Specified Time. Even Of a Certain Person. But The Dutch Funeral? Most unlikely. It was while we were researching works for the Closer exhibition that its strangeness suddenly became evident to me. I was surprised that I’d never questioned the title before. But then, like many people who grew up in Christchurch, I was used to The Dutch Funeral as a fixture of local culture, a work so large it could never be taken off the wall at the McDougall; a magnificently gloomy painting which van der Velden scholar Rodney Wilson once described as “a sort of Christchurch version of the Night Watch with an immense public following”.