Provenance: Chunn Family Collection, Auckland Purchased from an exhibition at Barry Lett Galleries, 1974

From 1970 until 2005, Von and Jerry Chunn lived in two of the blackpainted Victorian terrace houses at the top of Parnell Road, near the cathedral. The narrow, higgledy-piggledy rooms were stacked with New Zealand art which they had begun collecting when they married in the 1950s. Jerry was a GP-turned-allergist, Von ran a medical bureau, and I was one of their five children.

Choosing together, Von and Jerry purchased paintings and drawings from artists such as Robert Ellis, Michael Smither, Philip Clairmont, Michael Illingworth, Terry Stringer and Dick Frizzell. At the time, many of these now well-established names, were emerging artists such as Pat Hanly and Louise Henderson, with whom my parents formed long friendships. I remember Dad commissioning a portrait of Mum by Jacqueline Fahey, and on a family trip to the South Island Dad taking a detour to drop in on Toss Woollaston who lived outside of Greymouth. My father didn't know the revered artist and poet, but being Greymouth-born himself, was hopeful of a warm welcome. He was right, and the visit resulted in Dad buying a painting of Moana.

Louise Chunn