PROVENANCE
Percy Hodgkins
Mr J H Jerram Paekakariki c 1910
Collection of short-story writers and literary stylist Maurice Noel Duggan (1922 - 74)
Purchased from the above collection by the current owners mother c. mid 1970s

EXHIBITED
Dunedin, Otago Art Society, cat. no. 165, November 1906
Canterbury Society of Arts, cat. no. 253, May - June 1907
Auckland Society of Arts, cat. no. no 151 May 1908
Solo exhibition, McGregor Wright's, Wellington, 1908 cat. no. 2 10 - 28 August, 1908

REFERENCE
p. 186 Works of Frances Hodgkins in New Zealand, E H McCormick, cat. no. 232
Published by Auckland City Art Gallery, 1954

In January 1906 in her thirty seventh year, Frances Hodgkins again departed from New Zealand for Europe. Arriving in Plymouth in late February, she spent little over a month with friends in London and Sussex before realising her long-cherished dream to teach and paint in Venice. She was soon joined there by a small group of students and other members of what she jokingly referred to as her 'personal entourage'.

By early April, settled in the Casa Frollo on the Guidecca, writing to her mother in Wellington, Hodgkins refers to the 'incomparable beauty' of Venice. By June, finding the heat overwhelming and seeking fresh impetus she left 'the most beautiful & most enchanting & alluring city in the world' for Chioggia, a small port on the Adriatic about seventeen miles southeast known as Little Venice. In further correspondence she wrote that Chioggia was 'famous for its handsome women & its fishing fleet'. The latter sentiment is clearly reflected in this work.

Some thirty five years later, with a lifetimes dedication to travelling and painting, Hodgkins place amongst the English avant-garde artists of the 1930s and 1940s was acknowledged and secure. She was chosen to represent Britain in the 22nd Venice Biennale. Due to the outbreak of war, Britain withdrew from the Biennale. The British Council then arranged for her works to be exhibited at Hertford House, London (The Wallace Collection).

This watercolour carries the title Sails in Works of Frances Hodgkins in New Zealand, E H McCormick, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1954 and the forthcoming Auckland Art Gallery Catalogue Raisonné. The Fishing Fleet, Chioggia was its exhibition title.

Included in the forthcoming Frances Hodgkins Online Catalogue Raisonné