Margaret Stoddart

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1865, d.1934

Canterbury Plains from Dyers Pass Road

  • 1888
  • Watercolour
  • Purchased with assistance from the Olive Stirrat bequest, 1987
  • 270 x 375mm
  • 87/15
  • View on google maps

Tags: landscapes (representations), mountains, natural landscapes, plains (landforms), roads, trees

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About the artist

Stoddart, Margaret Olrog (Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1865, d.1934)

Margaret Stoddart, from The Weekly Press 9 June 1909

Dyers Pass Road climbs the Port Hills to connect Christchurch with Lyttelton Harbour. As it rises to the summit, it provides a magnificent view of the Canterbury Plains sweeping across to the Southern Alps. It is likely that Margaret Stoddart painted this work outdoors, an approach encouraged at the Canterbury College School of Art where she studied. Painted in Stoddart’s last years of study, it shows her early, detailed approach to landscape painting. Her later works were more concerned with atmospheric effects. Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, across the harbour from Lyttelton, but in 1876 the family sailed for Britain. They 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. After living in England for several years, Stoddart returned to New Zealand in 1907 and settled again in Diamond Harbour.

Exhibition History

Margaret Olrog Stoddart Cabbage Trees, Clarence Valley, Kaikoura. Watercolour. Christchurch Art Gallery Trust Collection (Purchased with funds from Diana, Lady Isaac)  
Flowers into Landscape: Margaret Stoddart 1865-1934
Henri Lebasque Across the bay Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; May Schlesinger bequest, 1938
From an Historical Point of View: Works from the Collection
Image: uploads/2024_06/87_15.jpg
other labels about this work

  • Dyers Pass Road climbs over the Port Hills to connect Christchurch with Governor’s Bay in Lyttelton Harbour. The uninhabited landscape of Margaret Stoddart’s day is now the well-established Christchurch suburb of Cashmere.

    It is likely that Stoddart painted this watercolour outdoors. It is an early work painted in a topographical style, giving careful attention to the natural forms of the landscape but with the gentle, misty treatment associated with the rather poetic approach of the British Academic style.

    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 at Diamond Harbour. (Label from 2005)