Lady of the Lilies

Little is known about the context in which Dorothy Kate Richmond (1861-1935) painted Lady of the Lilies or the identity of its sitter, but the work’s apparent absence from exhibition records or newspaper reports during Richmond’s lifetime suggests it was undertaken in a personal capacity. Inscribed on the bottom-right-hand corner of the canvas, the signature ‘D. K. R. 1900’ dates Lady of the Lilies to Richmond’s European travels in 1899-1903. A compelling case can be made for the idea that it represents Constance ‘Connie’ Astley (1851-1935), an English gentlewoman who first met Richmond when she travelled to New Zealand in 1897-98.(1) The two women subsequently formed a close bond and saw each other often during Richmond’s time in Europe, mainly in Arisaig, the seaside Scottish town where Astley lived.

Photographs of Astley reveal a physiognomic likeness between her and the sitter in Lady of the Lilies, particularly the straight nose, flat lips and soft chin. In Lady of the Lilies, the figure’s features are emboldened by Richmond’s strong use of colour; the lips rendered in a merlot-red and the eyebrows and hair coloured a rich dark brown. Turned away from the viewer, the woman sits among a swarm of bright red lilies. Richmond portrays the flowers’ form with apparent ease: thick, assured brushwork and tonal variation capture the distinctive curl of their unfurling petals.

Following her return to New Zealand, Richmond was primarily recognised as a painter of floral scenes and landscapes, yet Lady of the Lilies showcases her virtuosity in figure painting. The strong diagonal line of the sitter’s straw hat effectively cuts across the canvas and casts most of her face in shadow, yet sensitive highlights on her upper lip and chin help to create a sense of three-dimensionality in Richmond’s subject. On the left side of the painting, the lilies’ salmon-red colour pops against the green blue of the figure’s blouse, where Richmond’s visible, impressionistic strokes create a sense of texture and form.

Astley suffered from poor health in the early twentieth century which, as recounted in Frances Hodgkins’ letters home, caused Richmond great concern during her travels abroad.(2) The ‘lady of the lilies’, however, is depicted with a sense of strength, evoked by the linear brim of her hat, her solid jawline, and Richmond’s unreserved brushwork and use of colour.

Victoria Munn, May 2025

(1) For more on Astley’s time in New Zealand, see Jill de Fresnes, ed., Constance Astley’s Trip to New Zealand 1897-1898 (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1997).
(2) See, for example, Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Rachel Hodgkins, 20 December 1901. Alexander Turnbull Library, MS-Papers-0085-11.

This essay originally appeared in New Zealand Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2018).

DK Richmond’s Lady of the lilies is no allegorical Madonna, her virginity symbolised by pure, white lilies, but a modern woman, framed by cascades of vibrant red-orange blooms which offset the subject’s bluish-green blouse. The sitter wears a straw hat, fastened with a ribbon under her chin, which casts her face in shadow. Richmond’s composition closely reflects a trend for ‘floral-female’ painting at the end of the nineteenth century. In reaction to the increasing emancipation of women, male artists presented their women subjects as passive and decorative.1 However, Richmond subverts this stereotype: she is the artist and possibly also the subject of this painting.

Lady of the lilies was painted in 1900, a year after Richmond travelled ‘Home’ to England. It was during this trip that Richmond befriended the artist Frances Hodgkins. They met while studying with Norman Garstin of the Newlyn School, whom they both thought their ‘ideal man and artist’,2 and subsequently toured the Continent together, sketching at artists’ colonies in San Remo, Caudebec and Arles. Richmond also made several visits to Constance Astley at Arisaig, a seaside village in Scotland. Connie, as she was known, was an aristocratic Englishwoman with whom Richmond developed an intense friendship. While this painting could be a self-portrait, Connie is also a possible subject. Both women shared the strong profile and serene nature that is captured in this secular Lady of the lilies.

Richmond returned to New Zealand in 1903 and became a significant figure in the early twentieth-century art scene in Wellington. She played a key role as an administrator for the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and was a much-loved teacher. Te Papa currently holds thirteen of her works — mostly watercolours from later in her career — of which this painting is the earliest. It demonstrates the influence of James Nairn and impressionism, while also reminding us of the important international connections of many of New Zealand’s colonial artists.

Rebecca Rice

1 Annette Stott, ‘Floral femininity: A pictorial definition’, American Art, vol. 6, no. 2, Spring 1992, pp. 60–77.

2 Frances Hodgkins, letter to Rachel Hodgkins, 7 August 1901, in Linda Gill (ed.), Letters of Frances Hodgkins, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1993, p. 94.