Best known as a sculptor, Charles Kidson was an assistant master at Canterbury College School of Art in 1896 when he exhibited The Potter at the Canterbury Society of Arts. A reviewer described the work as ‘a large canvas, which though not a portrait picture, bears an admirable likeness to a well-known Christchurch tradesman at work at his wheel’.The painting’s subject was Luke Adams (1838–1918), an English-born potter who established his Sydenham Pottery Works in 1881. Pictured here throwing flowerpots from prepared lumps of clay, Adams often put himself on public display, working at his wheel during local industrial exhibitions.

(Leaving for Work, 2 October 2021 – 1 May 2022)