Flora Scales

Originally from Lower Hutt, Flora Scales made several trips between Aotearoa New Zealand and Europe throughout her long career. In 1931 she painted at St Tropez in the South of France with fellow expatriates Frances Hodgkins, Maud Sherwood and Gwen Knight. Between October 1932 and June 1933 she studied at the Hans Hofmann School in Munich where her work continued to develop in a post-impressionist manner, and she later spent time in Paris, where she appreciated the simplicity of French primitive artists such as Henri Rousseau and the post-impressionist Georges Seurat. Mousehole, Cornwall was painted when Scales settled in Cornwall during the early 1950s. The simplified shapes of the seawall beyond the boats at low tide have been painted with a muted palette in a loose, washed-out manner that reveals her interest in semi-abstraction.

(Timeless: Treasures from the Historical Collection 19 September 2026 – 30 May 2027)