Douglas MacDiarmid‘s vibrant oil painting of everyday rural life in France in the 1950s is associated with a lot of ‘firsts’. It came to New Zealand for one of the earliest exhibitions at Andre Brooke’s Gallery 91, the first commercial dealer gallery in Cashel Street, Christchurch. Sought out in Paris by the gallery owner, Douglas’ one-man show held in late June 1959 was the first large exhibition of his French paintings seen in New Zealand. The exhibition was opened by his old friend, crime writer and theatre producer Ngaio Marsh, and very well reported in local papers. One newspaper article included a photograph of the painting. Twelve of the 20 MacDiarmid paintings on offer sold on opening night, prompting the Christchurch Star to comment that if success was measured by the number of red dots on pictures, at prices to 70 guineas, he had arrived.

The scene of this painting is the Provence region of south eastern France, one of Douglas’ favourite locations. In the 1950s he lived there for a time, working au pair on a friend’s farm in the hills behind Cannes. It was here he immersed him in the language and culture of the country, observing and painting in his spare time. He came back time and again to explore the back roads and hidden corners extensively, drawn to a diverse landscape of alps and plains, pine forests and olive groves, and the contrast of medieval heritage, traditional rural life and the coastal glamour of the French Riviera. Seeing the women busy with their washing in a stream, in such a picturesque setting among the trees, would have stopped him in his tracks for a few quick sketches.



Gallery 91, incidentally, later became the Brooke Gifford Gallery and continued trading in Christchurch until the devastation of the 2010/2011 earthquakes. Douglas MacDiarmid’s Washerwomen in Provence sold for $9564 at Dunbar Sloane’s Fine Art Auction in Wellington in December 2017.