Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Illustrated p. 171, The Art of Peter Siddell, Peter Siddell Godwit 2011

Using a small, almost postcard like format in the images of Italian and French cities, Siddell again imbues his images with skies that are paradoxically expressive and static creating an otherworldly light that transforms and elevates the commonplace. In Borghese the campanile and domes of Rome are silhouetted by the glow of the morning (or is it evening) twilight; above this band of light cowers a sky heavy with grey and the image is heavy with portent, of what? Ambiguity surreptitiously underpins these works of apparent simplicity. It is in comparing these "foreign" images with local images that we gain further insight into the ways in which these paintings work. In Borghese a palm tree stands sentinel over the silent city, its natural jagged form simultaneously echoes and contrasts with the smooth, perfect man-made domes. Note affixed verso

Peter Siddell 1935 - 2011

Sir Peter Siddell paintings breathe the suburbs of Auckland. Siddell was born in Auckland in 1935 and attended Mount Albert Grammar. He initially worked as an electrician and then a teacher but after his 1972 sellout solo exhibition at Moller's Gallery in Auckland he took up painting full time. He has gone on to become one of New Zealand's most admired painters with works in most public and corporate collections.

In 1978 he won the Air New Zealand Travel Award and the Benson & Hedges Supplementary Art Award.

In 1991 Siddell received a Queens Service Order (QSO). He was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art in 2008, an honour that was redesignated as Knight Companion of the Oder in 2009.

A 290 page book 'The Art of Peter Siddell' by Peter Siddell was recently published.

Siddell passed away in October 2011 in Auckland