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An Otira stream (also known as Mountain Rata) by Margaret Stoddart
Collection
28 February 2014. Posted by Peter Vangioni
This article first appeared as 'Otira colour captured in all its summer glory' in The Press on 28 February 2014.
Paintings of the Otira Gorge more often than not depict the region in its most tempestuous mood, dark brooding clouds enveloping rugged mountain ranges, incessant rainfall and torrents of rushing water sweeping down stream beds. Petrus van der Velden's Mount Rolleston and the Otira River (1893) or John Gibb's Flood in the Otira Gorge (1895), both in Christchurch Art Gallery's collection, come to mind. Paintings such as these present grand monumental views of the Otira in its darkest and most stormy moods of the winter months.
Margaret Stoddart's vibrant watercolour An Otira Stream however presents a far more peaceful moment in the seasonal cycle of the Otira during the height of the summer months. The most distinctive features in this work are the scarlet red blooms of the Mountain Rata (Metrosideros umbellata) which provide a striking contrast to the greens and greys of the forest and stream bed. During the summer months of late January and February Mountain Rata transform the forested slopes of the Gorge into patches of shimmering red. There's not a cloud in the sky and the stream bed lies bone dry with the hot summer sun shining on the mountain tops beyond. These are perfect conditions for Stoddart, a renowned plein air (out-door) painter whose primary interest was in conveying the effects of light on the landscape before her, something she has certainly achieved here.
Stoddart first visited the Arthur's Pass region in 1896 when she completed a camping tour in a wagon with a group of friends along the West Coast Road. She returned towards the end of her career around 1927 by which time she had developed a broad, fluid style of painting that is full of confidence and conviction. Stoddart is much admired for her still-life flower paintings and in An Otira Stream she blends her interest in flowers with the rugged mountainous landscape through the focus on the Mountain Rata blooms.
The Christchurch Art Gallery holds an impressive collection of 40 paintings by Stoddart with examples spanning her career of some forty years from the 1890s to the 1930s. Amongst these are stunning examples of her work as a still-life flower painter, plein air, impressionist influenced paintings completed during her extended stay in Europe from 1898 to 1906, as well as street scenes of Christchurch; but one of the highlights is An Otira Stream.
Mountain Rata are in bloom at Otira Gorge at the moment and would be well worth the effort to view if you happen to be heading up and over Arthur's Pass in the next week or so.
Related reading: Margaret Stoddart: Nature's Artist
Collection
![Flood in the Otira Gorge](/media/cache/57/fe/57fed24ba9586983924a7d985df2a241.jpg)
John Gibb Flood in the Otira Gorge
Artist John Gibb emigrated from Scotland and settled in Christchurch in 1876, and was soon recognised as the area’s leading artist. Gibb painted in the academic style, favouring the early morning and evening light when the sun is low and the landscape is bathed for a moment in a luminous glow. Ōtira’s mountains break majestically through low cloud, as light leads the eye down to the wild, raging river below. A horse-drawn coach seems minuscule compared to the sheer force of nature as presented by Gibb.
(Endless Light, 29 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)
Collection
![An Otira Stream [also known as Mountain Rata]](/media/cache/b1/a6/b1a685e39ffb4d405a3f5d7f9ad77aac.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart An Otira Stream [also known as Mountain Rata]
Margaret Stoddart first made the trip along the West Coast Road over Arthur’s Pass and through the Otira Gorge in April 1896, travelling in a hired wagon with several companions. Around 1927 Stoddart completed several watercolours of the gorge including An Otira Stream (also known as Mountain rata). In this work the artist combines her interest in flower painting with landscape to complete a vibrant vision of southern rata in full bloom amongst the rugged Otira terrain. In the summer months of January and February the mountain slopes of the Otira Gorge come alive with the crimson flowers of southern rata.
Collection
![Mount Rolleston and the Otira River](/media/cache/31/03/31038f9ed35db3b802f9ba267b62152c.jpg)
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River
Talking about his first visit to Ōtira in 1890, Rotterdam-born artist Petrus van der Velden later recalled, “For the first three days I did nothing at all but just looked, it took my breath away.” A highly skilled professional artist with substantial exhibiting experience in the Netherlands, van der Velden prioritised capturing or expressing emotion in his art over recording the physical features of the landscape. The awe-inspiring setting aided him in this pursuit – especially during stormy weather – and drew him back again and again.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Article
![Exquisite Treasure Revealed](/media/cache/47/3f/473fc78c45d431861c7661f8c8ebca63.jpg)
Exquisite Treasure Revealed
Canterbury Museum holds two albums compiled by Diamond Harbour artist Margaret Stoddart. The older of the two, containing images featured in this Bulletin, and itself currently exhibited in the Gallery, covers the period 1886–96. The album is handsomely bound in maroon, and stamped M.O.S. in gold. It contains a sort of travelogue by way of black and white photographs set amongst decorative painting, mostly of native flora, with some locality and date information.
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![New Brighton by Margaret Stoddart](/media/cache/4d/f9/4df918c648ead3da9670f12e424b6b61.jpg)
New Brighton by Margaret Stoddart
This article first appeared as 'Stoddart: an artist for all seasons' in The Press on 17 November 2015.
Exhibition
Nature's Artist: Margaret Stoddart
The dazzling watercolours of an adventurous and trailblazing Canterbury artist.
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![Godley House, Diamond Harbour by Margaret Stoddart](/media/cache/38/3a/383a97ea795cdad9a19fd12d072cc463.jpg)
Godley House, Diamond Harbour by Margaret Stoddart
This article first appeared as 'Stoddart's summer' in The Press on 15 February 2013.
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![Margaret Stoddart: born Diamond Harbour 3 October, 1865.](/media/cache/dd/7c/dd7c1d5aaad574b4f64b385f3cddd478.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart: born Diamond Harbour 3 October, 1865.
While the Gallery remains closed to the public the permanent collection continues to grow with several generous gifts and bequests being received recently.
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![Diamond that shines](/media/cache/e3/32/e33261411714aaf1140cb1ef95668dd8.jpg)
Diamond that shines
The ruins of Diamond Harbour's Godley House may have finally been removed but the stunning sparkling views out across Lyttelton Harbour remain.
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![Happy birthday Margaret](/media/cache/56/07/5607ecda5ecdcaea59bffdc40be3c7ec.jpg)
Happy birthday Margaret
Margaret Stoddart was born on this day in 1865 at Diamond Harbour. Here she is in 1909:
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![Godley House](/media/cache/41/53/4153d8811dfe1bf8888baf425c2b7746.jpg)
Godley House
The Press announced today that another iconic Banks Peninsula building is to be demolished, Godley House at Diamond Harbour.
Exhibition
Picturing the Peninsula
A selection of works by some of New Zealand’s most significant historical and contemporary artists responding to the unique landscapes of Banks Peninsula Te Pataka o Rakaihautu.
Collection
![Bush Fire, Paraparaumu](/media/cache/15/80/1580ea2ad35ca77882188c047f92a412.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Bush Fire, Paraparaumu
Environmentalists in Aotearoa New Zealand have been fighting to protect our forests from as early as the 1860s. In 1863, the Kīngitanga Te Hokioi newspaper urged readers to: “cease setting fire to the forests lest the trees be consumed; lest there be no more trees for our descendants”. Five years later, Waitaha Canterbury MP and conservationist Thomas Potts gave a speech in parliament asking for assessment, care and protection of the forests. Some forty years later, Margaret Stoddart painted this watercolour in Paraparaumu on the Kāpiti Coast, showing smoke billowing from what remains of dense native bush that appears to be being cleared for agriculture. This was an unusual subject for Stoddart, far removed from the still-life subjects for which she became so highly regarded, and perhaps reveals her anxiety about the continuing deforestation of Aotearoa.
Kīngitanga ~ the King Movement which developed in the 1850s to stop the loss of land to colonists, maintain law and order and promote traditional values and culture
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
![Camiers, France](/media/cache/a0/58/a0585001c18ed790f62176e2a64afa02.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Camiers, France
Nature's Own Voice, 6 February - 26 July 2009
Margaret Stoddart worked exclusively as a watercolourist and painted plein-air landscapes from early in her career. Her work developed towards an impressionistic style while she was based in Europe between 1898 and 1906. At this time she began exploring the various atmospheric effects experienced while painting plein-air, as seen in Camiers, France, where Stoddart uses very wet washes of colour to capture the hazy conditions of the scene.
Collection
![Native Clematis](/media/cache/fa/62/fa62968f906de809b3e923641131d229.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Native Clematis
Margaret Stoddart established a strong reputation for the distinctive, increasingly atmospheric watercolour painting style she developed during her nine years abroad from 1898. Stoddart spent most of her childhood in the rural setting of Te Waipapa Diamond Harbour, followed by three years with her family in Edinburgh from 1876 before they settled in Christchurch in 1880. She and her three sisters enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art in 1882, its founding year; their father, Mark Stoddart, died in 1885.
After the family’s return to Diamond Harbour in 1897, Margaret left to extend her career in Europe; basing herself in Cornwall at the St Ives artists’ colony. As well as taking further expert tuition, she travelled extensively through England, Norway, France, Switzerland and Italy, where she spent most of her final year away. Stoddart exhibited her flower paintings and landscapes to critical success in Paris and at English commercial and public galleries, including the Royal Academy, before returning home in 1906.
(The Moon and the Manor House, 12 November 2021 – 1 May 2022)
Collection
![Diamond Harbour](/media/cache/b8/e7/b8e7e79a1e83113c65fab397321ecbc9.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Diamond Harbour
Margaret Stoddart was born in Te Waipapa / Diamond Harbour. Her father gave the harbour its English name after its sparkling waters, and commissioned the jetty’s construction in about 1857. Stoddart spent nine years in Europe studying, painting and exhibiting. When she returned home in 1906 she brought with her a skilful impressionist approach to her work. Stoddart was a prolific watercolourist who favoured coastal locations. At her first solo exhibition at the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1911, most of the fifty works shown had been painted near her family’s home at Diamond Harbour. However, as a reviewer for the Lyttelton Times noted, “New Brighton has received a share of attention, and perhaps it is shown at its best during a storm, gusts of wind howling across the Estuary, bending the tussock and grass on the beach.”
(Te Wheke, 2020)
Collection
![Godley House, Diamond Harbour](/media/cache/6c/b4/6cb4ca8cc3ff55c7a9121adea3713808.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Godley House, Diamond Harbour
On her return from Europe in 1907, Margaret Stoddart lived in Godley House with her mother and sister and remained there until the family’s Diamond Harbour estate was sold off in 1913. The family were keen gardeners, as can be seen by the charming cottage garden. This is one of a number of paintings Stoddart did in Diamond Harbour and shows the style she had developed during her time in Europe. The expressive opaque watercolour treatment is combined with fine fluid washes applied in a quick and direct manner, out of doors before the subject. Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, Christchurch, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879 and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club whose members were concerned with painting out of doors. She travelled to Europe in 1898.
Collection
![The Moors](/media/cache/28/fe/28fe2e484b3583117ea3985d14d2b46f.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart The Moors
Margaret Stoddart’s painting style altered dramatically during the period she spent in Britain between 1898 and 1906. She was based at St Ives, Cornwall, where there was a large contingent of artists whose interests lay primarily in impressionism and plein air painting.
Although the exact location of The Moors is not known for certain, the painting highlights Stoddart’s development at this time. Painted outdoors, loosely applied wet washes of subdued colour effectively convey the overcast atmospheric conditions, which are contrasted with several brightly coloured flowers in the foreground.
Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour on Banks Peninsula, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879, and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club, whose members were concerned with painting outdoors.
Collection
![Mount Sefton](/media/cache/f5/4e/f54e2116f27d1f1dd72a39af4da2d6b4.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Mount Sefton
Snow-clad, steeply pitched Kakīroa on the craggy Aroarokāehe range is among the highest peaks in the Aoraki Mount Cook district. Conforming to prevailing colonial practice, in 1862 they were renamed Mount Sefton and the Moorhouse Range respectively by geologist and museum director Julius von Haast. William Sefton Moorhouse was then the superintendent of the Canterbury Province. What was then difficult-to-reach terrain became more accessible from 1885, when the Hermitage hotel opened for tourists. The hotel’s location in what is now Mount Cook Village is very near the vantage points later taken by watercolour painters Margaret Stoddart, Dorothy Richmond and Esther Hope.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
![Mountain Lilies](/media/cache/96/9d/969d6fe1fd96088f2f6fc78146d0b651.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Mountain Lilies
Margaret Stoddart painted many scenes of the Southern Alps, particularly in the Mount Cook National Park region in South Canterbury. Indeed, the lilies featured here are known as ‘Mount Cook’ lilies.
By the time she painted this work, Stoddart was widely recognised as the leading New Zealand flower painter of the time. The immediacy of the detail suggests that she did at least the preliminary work on site, rather than in the studio. The watercolour washes have the Impressionistic style that became Stoddart’s hallmark.
Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, on Banks Peninsula, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879 and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club whose members were concerned with painting out of doors. After living in England for several years, Stoddart returned to New Zealand in 1907 and settled in Diamond Harbour.
Collection
![Old Cornish Orchard](/media/cache/a5/1e/a51e8b4315e7b580a9569aecfd0d861f.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Old Cornish Orchard
Margaret Stoddart was living in St Ives, Cornwall, throughout much of 1902 when this work was painted. Orchards and woodland scenes, particularly in spring when the trees were in blossom, were popular subjects with her and many of her contemporaries. Stoddart was interested in the Newlyn School’s naturalistic style of painting, working directly from nature. In this watercolour she has over-painted the work with an opaque body-colour to represent the blossom. She painted several works exploring the effects of light on blossom at various times of the day. Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, Christchurch, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879 and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club whose members were concerned with painting out of doors. After again living in England for several years, Stoddart returned to New Zealand in 1906 and settled at Diamond Harbour.
(Turn, Turn, Turn: A Year in Art, 27 July 2019 – 8 March 2020)
Collection
![Anna Ollivier Roses](/media/cache/ef/74/ef74ca3e4581206396f92d93262fd322.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Anna Ollivier Roses
“I live out my own world & follow in the lives of Frances Hodgkins […] and other women painters,” wrote Rita Angus. One of those painters was fellow Waitaha Canterbury artist Margaret Stoddart. Like Margaret, Rita developed a deep appreciation of botanical subjects in her work. Although both artists are known for their landscapes, their approach to watercolour couldn’t be more different; Margaret’s lively impressionistic approach contrasts with Rita’s work, which is rich with the detail usually reserved for a botanical artist illustrating a scientific journal.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
![Roses](/media/cache/7b/4a/7b4ab4029bfb0293f61fb6073f11aa66.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Roses
“I live out my own world & follow in the lives of Frances Hodgkins […] and other women painters”, wrote Rita Angus. One of these other painters was fellow Waitaha Canterbury artist Margaret Stoddart. Both Rita and Margaret developed a deep appreciation of botanical subjects in their practices, alongside their work as landscape painters. Their approach to watercolour couldn’t be more different, however: Margaret with her lively impressionistic approach contrasts with Rita’s accuracy and detail usually reserved for a botanical artist illustrating a scientific journal.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
![Spring Flowers, Cornwall](/media/cache/b0/f4/b0f4c5ad29fd4e3c490dd0fee6d8f9e4.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Spring Flowers, Cornwall
Margaret Stoddart established a strong reputation for the distinctive, increasingly atmospheric watercolour painting style she developed during her nine years abroad from 1898. Stoddart spent most of her childhood in the rural setting of Te Waipapa Diamond Harbour, followed by three years with her family in Edinburgh from 1876 before they settled in Christchurch in 1880. She and her three sisters enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art in 1882, its founding year; their father, Mark Stoddart, died in 1885.
After the family’s return to Diamond Harbour in 1897, Margaret left to extend her career in Europe; basing herself in Cornwall at the St Ives artists’ colony. As well as taking further expert tuition, she travelled extensively through England, Norway, France, Switzerland and Italy, where she spent most of her final year away. Stoddart exhibited her flower paintings and landscapes to critical success in Paris and at English commercial and public galleries, including the Royal Academy, before returning home in 1906.
(The Moon and the Manor House, 12 November 2021 – 1 May 2022)
Collection
![Storm Clouds, Blythburgh, Suffolk [also known as Suffolk Village]](/media/cache/9a/42/9a4264afac7cbdf432999e96c83df21f.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Storm Clouds, Blythburgh, Suffolk [also known as Suffolk Village]
‘Storm clouds, Blythburgh, Suffolk’ is typical of Margaret Stoddart’s growing interest in impressionism and painting outdoors while based in England between 1898 and 1906. The atmospheric conditions of the impending storm above Blythburgh have been rendered directly using wet washes of colour. Stoddart travelled widely, taking sketching trips to France, Italy and throughout Britain, often seeking out picturesque villages such as Blythburgh as her subjects. Stoddart enjoyed living at St Ives, Cornwall. The town’s reputation as a plein-air (open air) artists’ colony made it a magnet for New Zealand artists including Frances Hodgkins and Dorothy Richmond, who visited Stoddart there in 1902. (Brought to Light, November 2009)
Collection
![Wallflowers](/media/cache/da/dd/daddf103387cb4ac9f47dc94219906b2.jpg)
Margaret Stoddart Wallflowers
Flower painting was a popular subject with Victorian colonial women artists. It was considered more appropriate than painting landscapes, which tended to be dominated by male artists. Early in her career and influenced by her studies at the Canterbury College School of Art, Margaret Stoddart painted Wallflowers in a careful manner. The School placed an emphasis on close observation and truth to nature. The Australian botanical artist Ellis Rowan encouraged Stoddart and wrote in the Australian Town and Country Journal that, ‘Her grouping, colouring, form and harmony were perfect.’ Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, on Banks Peninsula, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain and she received her early education in Edinburgh. The family returned to New Zealand in 1879 and in 1882 Stoddart enrolled at the School of Art. She was a founding member of the Palette Club whose members were concerned with painting out of doors. After living in England for several years, Stoddart returned to New Zealand in 1907 and settled in Diamond Harbour.
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![The Watercolour Collection](/media/cache/6b/f1/6bf1d695843f265c46c1c98a264a7c1c.jpg)
The Watercolour Collection
The Gallery's Watercolour Collection had modest beginnings, but over the past 70 years it has grown steadily by gift and purchase and, of all the Collections, still maintains a largely traditional emphasis. When the Gallery opened in June 1932, just 28 of the 128 paintings on display were watercolours and, of these, 11 were by British artists and 17 by New Zealanders. Among the mostly nineteenth century British watercolours were those by Helen Allingham, Edgar Bundy, Matthew Hale, Laura Knight, William Lee Hankey and Ernest Waterlow. In contrast, the New Zealand watercolours were by mostly contemporary or early twentieth century artists and included works by James Cook, Olivia Spencer Bower, Margaret Stoddart, Maude Sherwood, Eleanor Hughes and Alfred Walsh. The foundation Watercolour Collection included two paintings of larger than usual dimensions. William Lee Hankey's We've been in the Meadows all day (1184 x 878mm) and Charles N. Worsley's Mount Sefton (996 x 1105mm) are still greater in scale than any other work in the Watercolour Collection.