76. Maud Burge (1865 - 1957)
Beach Scene
Watercolour
29 x 37.5 cm
Signed
est. $3,000 - 5,000
Relative Size: Beach Scene
Relative size

Maud Burge (née Williams) was a New Zealand artist who painted primarily in oils and watercolours. Her work was heavily influenced by her studies and travels throughout Europe.

Burge was heavily influenced by the work of New Zealand artist James Nairn, who was renowned for portraits and landscapes painted using the en plein air approach. Around the turn of the century she painted portraits at Charles Frederick Goldie's studio in Auckland.

Under his tutelage Burge painted Ina Te Papatahi of the Ngāpuhi iwi, who was one of Goldie's earliest models. In 1909 she married George Aylesford Burge and the couple left New Zealand for Europe soon after. Burge studied in France and was a pupil of English watercolourist Fred Mayer.

She spent time painting in locations such as Concarneau, Saint-Tropez, Morocco and Dalmatia depicting beach and market scenes. Burge exhibited with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts under her maiden name, Williams, from 1883-1906; and then from 1926, under her married name.

Frances Hodgkins most likely met Maud through her sister, Isabel Field, in Wellington. In 1924, Hodgkins described Maud, then living in Montreuil, "as a charming but changeable woman". Hodgkins painted in the Burges' garden in Saint-Tropez in 1931 and joined them the following year in Mallorca and Ibiza.

Maud accompanied Hodgkins on several painting expeditions in Ibiza along with fellow artists Gwen Knight and May Smith. In 1937 the Burges returned to New Zealand, settling in Taupo and then later at Cole Street in Masterton.

Auctions