Petrus van der Velden
Netherlands / Aotearoa New Zealand / Australia, b.1837, d.1913
Mountain Stream, Otira Gorge
- 1893
- Oil on canvas
- Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation Collection, purchased 1996
- 1445 x 2020 x 35mm
- L85/82
- View on google maps
Tags: landscapes (representations), mountains, natural landscapes, rivers
The Rotterdam-born Petrus van der Velden arrived in New Zealand in 1890. Following his first visit to Otira Gorge in January 1891, he became engrossed with this subject, and painted its powerful, surging torrents many times over the next two years.
This painting was purchased by Gilbert Anderson, a leader in New Zealand’s frozen meat industry, also involved with the Canterbury Society of Arts. Anderson sold it to the Society in 1912; it was purchased from them in 1996 through the Community Trust and Christchurch Art Gallery Trust.
(Treasury: A Generous Legacy, 18 December 2015 – 27 November 2016)
Exhibition History
Brought to light, November 2009- 22 February 2011
Petrus van der Velden’s arrival in Christchurch in 1890 was a watershed moment for the city’s fledgling art scene. One of the first truly professional artists to settle in the region, he brought with him over thirty years of experience as a practising artist in the Netherlands. Within a year of his arrival in Christchurch Van der Velden had become captivated by the sublime grandeur of the Otira Gorge. Often working on a large scale, his expressive treatment of this subject portrays the region as indomitable and untouched. For van der Velden – who once stated ‘I serve my God in studying nature’ – God was represented by nature in all its untouched splendour.
Petrus van der Velden’s ‘mountain stream’ is the Otira River, which flows down the Otira Gorge on the West Coast side of Arthur’s Pass. Van der Velden first went there in January 1891. At that time visiting this area involved a hard day’s travel from Christchurch, over ill-made roads and several unbridged rivers, but it was a region that powerfully caught Van der Velden’s imagination. The romantic landscape, unpeopled and wild, was inspired by the 19th century interest in the ‘sublime’. Van der Velden has successfully captured the awe-inspiring aspect of the flooding river, the dark, bush clad mountain slopes and the gathering storm clouds. Born in Rotterdam, Van der Velden established himself as a painter, particularly of marine subjects, before he and his wife emigrated from Holland in 1890. Van der Velden struggled to make a living in Christchurch, however, and went to Sydney in 1898. He returned to settle in Wellington in 1904 but was living in Auckland when he died. (Opening Gallery hang, 2003)
Related reading: Treasury: a generous legacy
Petrus van der Velden room card
This room card was created for the exhibition Closer 16 December 2017 – 26 August 2018.
Notes
It was 100 years ago today...
There are not many works in Christchurch Art Gallery's collection that can be pin-pointed to the exact date in which they were completed but Petrus van der Velden's Self-portrait with Otira Gorge is one and it was completed exactly 100 years ago today.
Notes
Otira: It's a state of mind
It's always a good day when new artworks arrive at the gallery to enter the permanent collection and so it was when Grace Butler's large oil painting In the Otira Gorge turned up. It has been very generously bequeathed to the Gallery by her daughter, Grace Adams who recently passed away.
Notes
International Book Day
I was lucky enough to recently acquire my own copy of one my favourite books, Rodney Wilson's two-volume, case bound Catalogue Raisonne of Petrus van der Velden.
Notes
e-poetry
This term the Gallery is running Ringmaster: Stories from Christchurch Art Gallery, a writing competition for 8 to 18 year olds.
Notes
Wall to wall van der Velden
Right now, visitors to the Gallery have an excellent opportunity to view three key paintings by Petrus van der Velden in the current Brought To Light hang, and all without even having to take a single step.
Notes
The Valley of Darkness
In preparation for the Gallery's forthcoming exhibition and publication, Gallery photographer John Collie is busily photographing Petrus Van der Velden works.
Notes
Study (Woman in a wide black hat) by Raymond McIntyre
This article first appeared as 'The Muse' in The Press on 25 August 2015.
Notes
Still life with flowers in a basket by Pieter Hardimé
This article first appeared as 'Allegory of life's beauty, brevity and fragility' in The Press on 15 August 2014.
Notes
Untitled by Meindert Hobbema
This article first appeared as 'Dutch treat' in The Press on 12 April 2013.
Notes
Angels and Aristocrats
Blair Jackson and I attended the opening of Angels & Aristocrats at Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Friday 27 April. It's spectacular.
Notes
Taking Stock
It's hard to believe, but only eighteen collection works were damaged as a result of all earthquakes, with fourteen damaged on the 22 February 2011.
Notes
Belgian Refugees by Frances Hodgkins
This article first appeared in The Press on 28 February 2007
Belgian Refugees is one of the first oil paintings that Frances Hodgkins ever exhibited, although at the time she was already well accustomed to showing her watercolours. Working in oils and tempera on canvas, she used an experimental technique in this work that gained much from her experience with watercolour. Believed to have been first shown as Unshatterable, in October 1916 at the International Society's Autumn Exhibition in London, the choice of title would suggest a greater sense of resilience than is actually conveyed by this family group. Here only the baby is oblivious to trouble, while his nursing mother seems devoid of expression, and the older children tense with anxiety or fear. Behind the group, a gap in the swirling grey suggests the fact of a missing father, and this steam and smoke speaks of displacement, the atmospheric backdrop of a train station or the symbolic clouds of war. Within the wall of monochrome, intense colour is reserved for mother and child, who also remind of one of Hodgkins' favourite early choices of subject matter in watercolour.
Article
Trove
Recounting the untold stories behind some of the works in the exhibition Treasury: A Generous Legacy, curator Ken Hall also underlines the value of art philanthropy.
Commentary
The wisdom of crowds
In recent years, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing have become big news in the arts. By providing a funding model that enables would-be-investors to become involved in the production of new works, they have altered traditional models of patronage. Musicians, designers, dancers and visual artists are inviting the public to finance their projects via the internet. The public are also being asked to provide wealth in the form of cultural capital through crowdsourcing projects. The Gallery has been involved in two online crowdfunding ventures – a project with a public art focus around our 10th birthday celebrations, and the purchase of a major sculpture for the city. But, although these projects have been made possible by the internet, the concept behind the funding model is certainly not new. The rise of online crowdfunding platforms also raises important questions about the role of the state in the funding and generation of artwork, and the democratisation of tastemaking. How are models of supply and demand affected? Does the freedom from more traditional funding models allow greater innovation? Do 'serious' artists even ask for money? It's a big topic, and one that is undoubtedly shaping up in PhD theses around the world already. Bulletin asked a few commentators for their thoughts on the matter.
Article
The East India Company man: Brigadier-General Alexander Walker
Getting to know people can take time. While preparing for a future exhibition of early portraits from the collection, I'm becoming acquainted with Alexander Walker, and finding him a rewarding subject. Painted in 1819 by the leading Scottish portraitist of his day, Sir Henry Raeburn, Walker's portrait is wrought with Raeburn's characteristic blend of painterly vigour and attentive care and conveys the impression of a well-captured likeness.