Certificate of Authenticity signed by Allan Swinton & Hilda E O'Connor affixed verso

A catastrophic fire gutted the Elam School of Art premises on 15 January 1949. As many as two hundered paintings and drawings by Weeks were destroyed. This had a devastating impact on the artist's career and motivation. Even a post fire retrospective at the Auckland City Art Gallery failed to enthuse him.

'It's been a pretty hard smack . . . Over the years I'd taken over the best pencil drawings, watercolours and oils to show the students and others . . It's ironic that after all these years I should have pushed on for a one man show. . . I'm trying to paint on as hard as I can in the home studio to keep my mind off this. If I didn't do this I fear I might throw my brushes away'

Above is excerpt from a letter to Josephine Townsey from John Weeks in which Weeks describes his feelings after the fire. The unassuming eccentric, NZ Herald, November 1991

John Weeks 1886 - 1965

Weeks was an influential artist, both as a painter and as a teacher in the New Zealand art scene in the 1930s until the 1960s.

He was born in Devonshire, England and came to New Zealand at an early age.

Weeks studied at Elam School of Fine Arts from 1908 to 1911. He was an extensive traveller, spending time in England, Australia, Europe and North Africa, studying at the Edinburgh College of Arts and Andre L'Hote's Academy in Paris before returning to teach at Elam in 1929.