The Paris family

Toss Woollaston worked on this portrait for about two years, from 1977-79. During this time he was living in Nelson, and would fly up to Wellington for sketching sessions with the Paris family. The sketches, now held in the Te Papa archive, show Woollaston trying out different poses and attitudes for each member of the family. He then used the sketches to paint two versions of this group portrait in oil.

This is one of a small number of group portraits that Woollaston painted. It is a very dynamic work – each member of the family has been studied as a subject in their own right, but the final composition also suggests relationships and connections between the four figures. The Paris’ two children, in particular, strike wonderful poses. Slightly separate from their parents, their faces and bodies are full of teenage energy.

Les and Milly Paris were among New Zealand’s most important 20^th-century art collectors. They began to buy contemporary New Zealand art shortly after their marriage in 1963. Over the following decades they built a large collection, which lived on the walls of their Wellington house.