item details
NamePortrait of Constance, wife of Maurice Sochachewsky
ProductionDouglas MacDiarmid; artist; 1948; London
Classificationpaintings, portraits, works of art
Materialsoil paint
Materials Summaryoil on softboard
DimensionsImage: 322mm (height), 260mm (length)
Registration Number1984-0066-1
Credit linePurchased 1984 with New Zealand Lottery Board funds
Overview
In 1948, expatriate New Zealand artist Douglas Macdiarmid arrived in London, where he became friends with Maurice and Constance Sochachewsky. MacDiarmid painted Constance. Maurice, also an artist, painted Macdiarmid.
Constance already had a link with New Zealand. As a girl she had been taught by New Zealand poet Charles Brasch at Little Missenden Abbey, a school for ‘difficult’ children. According to Brasch, she was ‘a handsome, dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl with good regular features … When she gave in friendship or love she gave in devotion, unswerving … we became good friends, friends for life.’