Provenance:

Private Collection, Auckland,

International Art Centre Circa 1984

Exhibited as 'The Hen Wife', Otago Art Society 7 November, 1890

Reference:

p. 120 & 224 Works of Frances Hodgkins in New Zealand, E H McCormick

Anecdotal genre scenes of farmyard animals and the housemaid Phemie going about her daily tasks became synonymous with Frances Hodgkin's early work. Quaint rural idylls had a lower status than subjects that captured the epic of grandeur of lakes and mountains. Even when Hodgkins shifted focus and painted just the figure, her work amused her family. 'They were very funny at my expense tonight over the head and made scathing remarks about carved out turnips and beetroot ears, expressions more agricultural than artistic', she wrote to her sister Isabel in April 1892. Frances Hodgkins A Private Viewing Joanne Drayton, Random House 2005