PROVENANCE
Paul & Kerry Barber Collection Art Auction, Dunbar Sloane 4/9/2002

Douglas has always been captivated by the innate beauty and sensuality of the human form. Figurative paintings form a significant part of his portfolio, and he has painted nudes regularly throughout his career.

As a determinedly 'unschooled' painter, access to naked live models was the only reason he occasionally stepped into academic art classes.

In 1947-48, Douglas was living and working in London and Paris on his first overseas trip. Still honing his skills, he was influenced by Matisse and other impressionist masters at the time. Several paintings of friends in London in that period, including two Polish girlfriends Teresa and Danuta, are made in a similar style.

Reclining Nude was one of a number of fresh paintings he brought back to New Zealand in 1949, when he came home for a year before deciding to settle in France and dedicate his life to painting.

It may have been shown at his first solo art exhibition in Wellington Public Library in 1949, and soon became part of pioneering art and design gallery owner Helen Hitchings' personal collection. Helen and Douglas were lovers at the time, and the painting remained with her for the rest of her life. After her death, it was purchased by the Barbers at her estate clearance. In his 2002 art history MacDiarmid by Dr Nelly Finet, of Paris, MacDiarmid observed: The body has always mattered in the collective vision of our culture, but naked, remained largely within the sphere of art.

The mass beach-holiday industry of our time has finally stripped us bare and created an insistence on youth and health only equaled by our determination to ignore the neurotic consequences. Still, there is a generous display of beauty available, and I try to extract the rhythms of this scene, to see the body untrammeled with detail. It is also impossible to overlook the neuroses entirely.

Anna Cahill, MacDiarmid Arts Trust