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Late in his career as an artist Nicoll stated, ‘My philosophy of painting hardly amounts to a philosophy at all but is something much simpler than that. To set down selections of shapes and colours of objects seen in Nature has for most of my life been a normal natural thing to do.’39 The shapes and colours of the Canterbury landscape were certainly the richest source of imagery for Nicoll’s landscape painting. He constantly returned to certain motifs, and depicted them in all seasons. In this manner his work echoes that of the Barbizon school of painters in France who chose the humble and the familiar, creating pure landscapes of the countryside around Fontainebleau. His technical facility, assured draughtsmanship and appreciation of colour ensured that the familiar and the straightforward were given a substantial presence. In Peninsula, winter the rendition of sunlight and shadow on the snow is finely balanced with the warmer browns and greens. So too is the composition with its low viewpoint, which underlines the mass and height of the hills but does not allow them to dominate. The location of this painting has been identified as the Akaroa hills, a favourite place for Nicoll. It would have been completed in his studio at 97 Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch, from a series of smaller sketches made on location.
Tony Mackle
This essay originally appeared in Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2009).
1. Archibald F Nicoll, Year Book of the Arts in New Zealand, no. 3, 1947, p. 41.