Harbour Cone from Peggy's Hill

Last updated
Harbour Cone from Peggy's Hill
Artist Colin McCahon
Year1939 (1939)
Mediumoil on hardwood
Subject New Zealand landscape
Dimensions75 cm× 133.3 cm(30 in× 52.5 in)
ConditionGood
Location Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, Otago
OwnerJohn & Ethel McCahon Bequest, 1973
Accession73/86

Harbour Cone from Peggy's Hill (1939) is an early oil painting by New Zealand artist Colin McCahon.

Contents

Subject

Harbour Cone from Peggy's Hill is one of McCahon's earliest explorations of the Otago region. It depicts an elevated stance from the mountain tops, looking down towards Harbour Cone in the Otago Peninsula. This work is one of his more realistic creations - showing a clear landscape theme.

Harbour Cone, Otago Peninsula Harbour Cone Otago Peninsula.jpg
Harbour Cone, Otago Peninsula

In addition to this exoteric representation, Harbour Cone from Peggy's Hill also contains more esoteric meanings. McCahon wanted this artwork to express "the concept of nature as a spiritual and redeeming force." [1] In a letter to his friend Toss Woollaston he explained:

I imagined people looking at it then looking at the landscape and for once

really seeing it & being happier for it & believing in God & then the

brotherhood of men & the futility of war.

Colin McCahon to Toss Woollaston (1939), [2]

Because of comments such as these, the painting has been read as an evangelical statement designed to connect together God, peace, and the landscape. [1]

Reception

Early Controversy

Harbour Cone from Peggy's Hill was behind one of the earliest controversies in McCahon's long career. It was excluded from the 1939 Otago Art Society exhibition, despite the fact that each member (including McCahon) was entitled to display one work. Linda Tyler believes that this rejection was due to the absence of support "from an interested and informed public." [3]

Related Research Articles

Peter McIntyre (artist) New Zealand artist

Peter McIntyre was a New Zealand painter and author who rose to prominence as a result of artwork produced in his capacity as an official war artist during the Second World War.

Colin McCahon New Zealand artist (1919–1987)

Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and Rita Angus, McCahon is credited with introducing modernism to New Zealand in the mid-20th century. He is regarded as New Zealand's most important modern artist, particularly in his landscape work.

Hocken Collections

Hocken Collections (Māori: Uare Taoka o Hākena, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its library collection, which is of national significance, is administered by the University of Otago.

Rita Angus New Zealand artist (1908-1970)

Rita Angus, a New Zealand painter, has a reputation - along with Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston - as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century New Zealand art. She worked primarily in oil and water colour, and became well-known for her portraits and landscapes.

Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston was a New Zealand artist. He is regarded as one of the most important New Zealand painters of the 20th century.

Charles Brasch New Zealand poet, literary editor and arts patron

Charles Orwell Brasch was a New Zealand poet, literary editor and arts patron. He was the founding editor of the literary journal Landfall, and through his 20 years of editing the journal, had a significant impact on the development of a literary and artistic culture in New Zealand. His poetry continues to be published in anthologies today, and he provided substantial philanthropic support to the arts in New Zealand, including by establishing the Robert Burns Fellowship, the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and the Mozart Fellowship at the University of Otago, by providing financial support to New Zealand writers and artists during his lifetime, and by bequeathing his extensive collection of books and artwork in his will to the Hocken Library and the University of Otago.

<i>Landfall</i> (journal) New Zealand literary magazine

Landfall is New Zealand's oldest extant literary magazine. The magazine is published biannually by Otago University Press. As of 2020, it consists of a paperback publication of about 200 pages. The website Landfall Review Online also publishes new literary reviews monthly. The magazine features new fiction and poetry, biographical and critical essays, cultural commentary, and reviews of books, art, film, drama, and dance.

Gretchen Albrecht is a New Zealand painter and sculptor.

King Edward Technical College Former school in Dunedin, New Zealand

King Edward Technical College is a former school and technical college in Dunedin, New Zealand. The college was established in 1889 as the Dunedin Technical School when the Caledonian Society instigated night education classes.

James Nairn

James McLauchlan Nairn was a New Zealand painter who strongly influenced New Zealand painting in the late 19th century. He believed in en plein air or painting outdoors.

Fitzclarence Anstey John Caselberg was a New Zealand writer.

Helen Flora Victoria Scales (1887–1985) was a notable New Zealand artist. She was born in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand in 1887.

Doris Lusk New Zealand painter, potter, art teacher, and university lecturer (1916–1990)

Doris More Lusk was a New Zealand painter, potter, art teacher, and university lecturer. In 1990 she was posthumously awarded the Governor General Art Award in recognition of her artistic career and contributions.

Wystan Tremayne Le Cren Curnow is a New Zealand art critic, poet, academic, arts administrator, and independent curator. He is the son of Elizabeth Curnow, a painter and printmaker, and poet Allen Curnow.

Barry Lett Galleries New Zealand art gallery

Barry Lett Galleries was a dealer gallery focused on contemporary New Zealand art that operated in Auckland in the 1960s and 1970s.

Helen Hitchings was a New Zealand art dealer, best known for the short-lived but influential eponymous dealer gallery she opened in Wellington in 1949.

Peter McLeavey

Peter Joseph John McLeavey was a New Zealand art dealer and advocate based in Wellington.

The Group was an informal but influential art association formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1927. Initially begun by ex-students from Canterbury College of Art, its aim was to provide a freer, more experimental alternative to the academic salon painting exhibitions of the Canterbury Society of Arts. The Group exhibited annually for 50 years, from 1927 to 1977, and it was continuously at the forefront of New Zealand art's avant-garde scene.

Anna Margaret Frances Caselberg was a New Zealand painter.

Anne McCahon was a New Zealand artist who emerged as part of a lively South Island art scene in the 1930s, often taking trips into the countryside on painting excursions with fellow artists Doris Lusk, Toss and Edith Woollaston, and her eventual husband, Colin McCahon. Hamblett studied and first exhibited in Dunedin in the 1930s and '40s. Her artistic output was circumscribed after she married fellow modernist artist Colin McCahon in 1942. Her work has rarely been exhibited since her early Dunedin painting days and her first solo show took place posthumously in 2016 at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery.

References

  1. 1 2 Alderton, Zoe (2015). The Spirit of Colin McCahon. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 64. ISBN   978-1-4438-7232-4.
  2. Brown, Gordon H. (2003). Elements of Modernism in Colin McCahon's Early Work. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies. p. 34.
  3. Tyler, Linda (2003). "A Matter of Taste: Charles Brasch as Art Collector". In Kerr, Donald (ed.). Enduring Legacy: Charles Brasch, Patron, Poet & Collector. New Zealand: University of Otago Press. p. 49.