PROVENANCE
Private Collection, United Kingdom

The Artist's Mother Eliza Gilfillan with Second Wife, Mary Gilfillan (née Bridges), in an Interior relates to the similar compositioned watercolour by John Gilfillan featuring the artist's widowed mother and his first wife Sarah, Collection of Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui. The Whanganui watercolour was gifted by Dr H. W. Wilson and Mr J.P. Wilson, and two labels on its later backing board identify the sitters ('Eliza Gilfillan, mother's great aunt' - on a deleted label - and 'Sarah Murray, Gilfillan's fist wife at the spinning wheel'), presumably transcribed from earlier inscriptions by the artist's descendants.

Gilfillan lived with his widowed mother in Scotland after his discharge from the navy in 1816, and married his 15-year-old cousin Sarah Murray in Glasgow on 31 July 1826. Sarah, who had four children, died in childbirth in 1837, and Gilfillan married another cousin, Mary Bridges, in 1838. It seems likely that the present watercolour reworks the Whanganui interior, replacing his first wife Sarah with his second wife Mary, with whom Gilfillan and his young family emigrated to New Zealand in 1841.

On the evening of 18 April 1847, six young upriver Maori attacked the Gilfillan farm. John managed to escape and headed for Whanganui, four hours away on foot. He believed that he was the real target and that his family would not be harmed. He was wrong. When he returned the next morning with an armed party he found his wife Mary and three of their children dead and the homestead a smouldering ruin. Their youngest daughter was badly wounded in the attack and subsequently passed away as a result of her injuries.