(1869 - 1947)
Frances Hodgkins was born in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. She trained at the Dunedin School of Art, going on to work as an art tutor and producing paintings and illustrations for publications. In 1901 she left New Zealand for Europe, travelling through France and Morocco, before settling in London in 1913. Her work featured in several group shows including at the Royal Academy (1905) and with the Seven and Five Society (from 1929).
In the 1930s and 1940s, Hodgkins’ work was shown in exhibitions of modern British art, alongside artists such as John Piper, Henry Moore and Paul Nash. In 1940 she was one of a group of artists representing Britain at the Venice Biennale. Her double portrait, Loveday and Ann: Two Women with a Basket of Flowers (1915) was acquired by the Tate in 1944. She was part of an important group exhibition of work by Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Matthew Smith and Graham Sutherland, held in 1945 at the Lefevre Gallery, London.
Despite the artistic milieu that she was part of, and her expertise at absorbing and adapting the colour, energy and techniques of artists such as Matisse and Braque, Hodgkins’ artistic reputation was overlooked in mid-century accounts of modern British art, as was the case with many other women artists of that time. By 1969, however, her artistic reputation began to revive with a centenary exhibition that toured New Zealand, Australia and London. Several monographs of her work were published in the 1990s, which introduced her work to new audiences.
