Born in Dunedin in 1869, Frances Hodgkins received early artistic instruction from her father, an amateur landscape painter. She first exhibited at art societies in Dunedin and Christchurch in 1890. Hodgkins attended the classes of Girolamo Nerli in 1893 and studied at the Dunedin School of Art from 1895-96. In August 1896 she began teaching private art classes.
In early 1901 Frances Hodgkins departed Dunedin for the United Kingdom and Europe where she travelled extensively through England, France, Holland, Belgium and Morocco. She exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1903-05. Hodgkins returned to New Zealand in 1904 for a period of almost two years before departing for Europe in early 1906. She travelled to Italy, France and Holland and settled in Paris in November 1908 where she taught at Colarossi’s Academy and established her own painting school (1910-12). In October 1912, Frances Hodgkins returned to New Zealand with numerous watercolours, completed during the previous decade.
She held solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Dunedin and Wellington. Hodgkins exhibited seventy-four works at the Theosophical Society’s Rooms, Melbourne, in November 1912, including 'Rosamond’. The journal of the Victorian Artists’ Society (1 December 1912) reported that Hodgkins’ Melbourne exhibition was one of the highlights of the year.
Hodgkins returned to the United Kingdom in October 1913 where she remained for the rest of her life. After working and teaching in St Ives, France, Manchester, London, Spain and Wales, she settled in Dorset where she died in 1947.
- Writers:
- Sullivan, Lisa
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
- Date written:
- 2012
- Last updated:
- 2012
