A captivating work by New Zealand art great: the late Sir Mountford Tosswill Woollaston.

Today, his body of work is one of New Zealand’s most recognizable, and highly regarded. Wollaston's works are extremely important to 20th Century art, and undoubtedly assisted in moulding New Zealand art history.

Praise for the artist, was few and far between for much of his lifetime. He faced a “slow journey to recognition”. Of his first show in 1936 “An observer commented that the work was ‘the mind of a monkey expressing itself through a human’”. “Many people regarded his devotion to painting as the whim of a wastrel”, but he was undeterred by criticism - “I knew what painting was, and if they didn’t know… they could do the other thing”.

Woollaston, finding no success in the art world, fought to provide for his young family - working as “an orchard worker, a factory hand, and a Rawleigh’s salesman”. Finally, in 1963, he was sought out by aspiring art dealer Peter McLeavey with whom he came to form a sole-dealer relationship. In 1966, he aspired to paint full time. After years of struggling in Greymouth, in 1968 the Woollaston’s moved back to the Motueka area. This move coincided with Mcleavey’s first official exhibition in his new Cuba St. gallery - a solo show of Woollaston works, September 1968.

This landscape for sale is dated 06/10/’68 placing it amongst his return to Riwaka/Mapua - the area initially of huge inspiration to the artist during his formative years. It represents a return to warmer colours, in comparison to the more subdued tones of his West Coast landscapes.

To me, it is distinctly optimistic - produced at a time in which his life was finally being kind. With that in mind, I doubt there are many examples in which Woollaston more successfully demonstrates that his “ineluctable desire was to ‘interpret the beauty of life’”.

A lovely composition, exhibiting beautifully Woollaston’s deliberate employment of line & colour.

Frame Measures: 540w x 475h Work Measures: 340w x 260h