Included in the auction is an outstanding collection of Mary Elizabeth Tripe paintings. Tripe established a successful career as a leading portrait painter in New Zealand and received numerous commissions. She exhibited with Art Societies throughout New Zealand as well as with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The Royal Academy and the Paris Salon. A large oil on canvas painting of Wellington (Lot 59 ) and smaller landscape studies such as Farmhouse Provence (Lot 59 ) and Blue Gums (Lot 65 ) demonstrate the artist’s skill and exemplarily use of colour.
A fine pastel on paper work by Sir Peter Siddell, Glacier with Clouds, (Lot 36 ) has been released from the artist’s estate and is accompanied by a series of works by his late wife Sylvia Siddell. Drawing on the tradition of the European vanitas, or allegorical still life, Sylvia Siddell's work often depicts inanimate, familiar, and ordinary objects, giving them a sense of vibrancy and reflects on the joys, sorrows, struggles, and frustrations of daily existence. These attributes are clearly defined in her painting, Chook, (Lot 40 ) and etchings, Burning Stove (Lot 37 ) & Impetuous Machine (Lot 38 ).
Other auction standouts include a fine oil on canvas landscape, Waitui Stream, Takaka (Lot 102 ), by Frederick Ellis who is best known for his stained glass windows in the Auckland War memorial Museum and a large John Weeks painting, Mediterranean Waterway, 1989 (Lot 129 ).
The auction will be on view at International Art Centre’s Parnell premises, 202 Parnell Rd, and will conclude on Tuesday 5 March from 6pm.
