This early Douglas MacDiarmid watercolour is a bit of a mystery because it has no date. There was a period when Douglas deliberately brushed out the dates on his paintings, particularly those for exhibition or sale in New Zealand because the art critics of the time were giving him a hard time. They were quick to suggest he was sending out ‘old work’ if the painting was not fairly current. However, he does leave some clues. Douglas’ signature has changed a lot over the years and is quite instructive in dating his work. From the slanting cursive full signature, this painting belongs to the period 1955 and 1965 in Paris

It most likely relates to a dinner incident he has never forgotten, and often laughs about. In his penniless years Douglas often relied on meal invitations from friends and patrons to keep himself fed. One night, after a successful exhibition opening, a wealthy patroness took he and a circle of four or five friends out for a celebratory dinner to toast the painter and the positive response to his latest work. She ordered a single bottle of wine for the table, which didn’t go very far, and was astonished to observe that her guests appeared to want more. As Douglas himself says “As rich as Croesus and ‘Encore du vin!’ We’ve never stopped laughing about it and repeating the question You want MORE wine! in mockery.” Money has never been a motivating force for MacDiarmid the painter. Occasions like this merely helped confirm his view that the richer people were the more stingy and mean-spirited they became.

Femme avec du vin hung in a private collection in New Zealand for many years before being sold to another collector at the International Art Centre’s Important and Rare Art Auction in Auckland in November 2017. The sale price was $1500.