B.

Edinburgh-born commercial artist James Fitzgerald exhibited this meticulously rendered view of Cathedral Square in Ōtautahi Christchurch alongside another titled A Corner in the Square. The two paintings were described as “large street scenes, very bright and almost photographic in quality”. One reviewer found their “frank realism … notable” but also expressed the wish “that an artist of such ability had employed his imagination to greater advantage”. This work, however, was published by several Te Ika-a-Maui / North Island newspapers alongside the heading “Fidelity in Painting”. When shown again at the Otago Society of Arts in November, a reviewer deemed this one the less successful, being “not so well handled, and considerably overstated in colour passages”. Putting vintage quibbles aside, Summer Evening in the City may be recognised as something rare, recording a now unrecognisable view from High Street into Cathedral Square, on a balmy 1930s evening in raking summer light.

(From Here on the Ground, 18 May – 17 November 2024)