Update: This painting was done in 1927 when Doris Zinkeisen travelled to New Zealand on her honeymoon following her marriage to Edward Johnstone. Ana Hato (the subject of the painting) would have been 20, the same year when she sang for the Duke and Duchess of York when they were in Rotorua in 1927. That was followed by a concert tour around New Zealand.

The portrait features Ana Hoto, New Zealand's first recording star

PROVENANCE

Private Collection UK

Private Collection Canterbury

Doris Zinkeisen was a Scottish theatrical stage and costume designer, painter, commercial artist and writer. She was best known for her work in theatrical design. Zinkeisen's realist style made her popular as a portraitist and she became a well-known society painter in London. The subject matter of her paintings, society portraiture, equestrian portraiture and scenes from the parks of London and Paris reflect the lifestyle of the upper class at the time.

In spring 1945 Zinkeisen volunteered her services as a war artist to the north-west Europe commission of the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St John as it moved into newly liberated Europe. She recorded the commission's activities supporting post-war relief, and the rehabilitation and repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian internees. She was stationed in Brussels at the commission's headquarters, which had been the German headquarters during the occupation. She trained at the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited in London, Paris and the United States. She had also helped to nurse blitz casualties in London during the war.

She also worked in other media as an illustrator and commercial artist including producing advertising posters for several British railway companies, and the London Underground. In 1935 Doris and her sister Anna were commissioned by John Brown and Co Shipbuilders of Clydebank to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill restaurant aboard the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary. Their work can still be seen on the ship, now permanently moored in Long Beach, California.

A Princess from the Antipodes - Maori Princess of Rotorua is understood to be one of only two New Zealand works painted on an excursion to the Antipodes in the 1950s.