Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Rachel Hodgkins
Date
06 Jul 1908
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Date
06 Jul 1908
Transcript
Pension Norlaander Rijsoord July 6th
My darling Mother
I expect before this reaches you you will have heard of my good fortune in winning 1st prize at the Franco British in the Australian Section of Women’s Art – or rather ½ share of the 1st prize. I believe if I had been an Australian I should have had the full prize but belonging to another colony it seems hardly fair that I should carry of all their honours. I might even have been disqualified as a New Zealander. This prize money has saved the day – my strength was beginning to give out & I felt I could not carry on much longer. The strain of the last 6 months has been so great & was beginning to tell on me. Twice I have been quite without any money to carry on & but for my firm belief that things would ultimately right themselves & that recognition would come eventually if I could only hold on – I believe I should have gone under. My friends here cheered & sustained me through out & had faith in me & this has kept me afloat. It has not only been a fight for my art but a pitch battle for my daily bread, but of course it is worth it & I do not regret all the sleepless nights & the agony of mind that has gone to the making & moulding of my art such as it is. I really think I have been tried to my utmost & it had come to a breaking point when I felt I had come to the out side of my powers & I could neither think nor act any more. I had fought the fight & given my best. It seems quite amusing now to think how Gertrude & I sat planning, late into the night how I should go back with her to England with the few remaining pounds left me & try & start a sketching class with her in Yorkshire living with the Cromptons at their summer place at Tanfield. This of course was only to gain time and avoid a return to NZ when by hanging on for a few extra months, the tide might change & all would be right. They all realise how fatal it would be to give in now while things are in the balance.
I must tell you the man from Leeds backed out of his bargain at the 11th hour refusing to pay commission. I had asked him to pay the commission as the price was so greatly reduced. It was rather despicable but a sign of the times, or I am told a good example of the way they do business in Yorkshire. Any way it left me up a tree. Imagine my plight! Joy cometh with the morning however & the enclosed slips in a kind letter from Mr Lindner, I found waiting for me at breakfast. He wrote asking me to go over & stay with them & receive my prize in person which I felt very much enclined to do, but by the same post I had 2 letters from ladies asking for particulars of my class & as I want as much as possible to advertise my class I think it better to see the season through, as advertised, & trust to them, & perhaps others joining me. Nearly all the big guns are taking pupils nowadays, it is small wonder that we small fry can’t get along. As the prizes are to be awarded today in London I shall probably get my cheque quite soon & directly it comes I shall leave here and go to a little place, Katwyk, on the sea coast near the Hague, where there is an artists colony & where I shall get braced up with sea breezes. Here my Dutch lady will come to me for another term & if I am able to entice a few more to join me I shall do very nicely. You can’t think how different I feel – the physical side of poverty, the mind acting on the body is what breakes one up. Now I feel I could fight an elephant single handed. Gertrude brought me an all powerful tonic which has made a new man & woman of me. I have authorised her to receive my award & do the polite & politic for me at the Prize giving. She has nice clothes & charming manners and will do it a great deal better than I would. I am sorry you don’t like my pictures I have sent out. You must remember I can’t send out the more attractive ones – it is better that they be shown this side. Miss Richmond is the only one as usual to put in a good word for my work. She knows perhaps I work better for kind words even if I don’t believe them. I would like you to exhibit the little head I sent you Mother dear – it is a style perhaps better understood. Fancy Bert a fireman of the first water – well I hope it will be all practice & oyster suppers. Thank you for Willie’s letter dear – the memory of your toothsome dishes seems to have made a deep hold in his heart. I often long for some of them myself. If only Will & Sis would come Home! How splendid. How glad I am, so very glad to be able to tell you of this good news. I know it will gladden your heart – as it did mine. Much love dearest. Your loving Frances.
My darling Mother
I expect before this reaches you you will have heard of my good fortune in winning 1st prize at the Franco British in the Australian Section of Women’s Art – or rather ½ share of the 1st prize. I believe if I had been an Australian I should have had the full prize but belonging to another colony it seems hardly fair that I should carry of all their honours. I might even have been disqualified as a New Zealander. This prize money has saved the day – my strength was beginning to give out & I felt I could not carry on much longer. The strain of the last 6 months has been so great & was beginning to tell on me. Twice I have been quite without any money to carry on & but for my firm belief that things would ultimately right themselves & that recognition would come eventually if I could only hold on – I believe I should have gone under. My friends here cheered & sustained me through out & had faith in me & this has kept me afloat. It has not only been a fight for my art but a pitch battle for my daily bread, but of course it is worth it & I do not regret all the sleepless nights & the agony of mind that has gone to the making & moulding of my art such as it is. I really think I have been tried to my utmost & it had come to a breaking point when I felt I had come to the out side of my powers & I could neither think nor act any more. I had fought the fight & given my best. It seems quite amusing now to think how Gertrude & I sat planning, late into the night how I should go back with her to England with the few remaining pounds left me & try & start a sketching class with her in Yorkshire living with the Cromptons at their summer place at Tanfield. This of course was only to gain time and avoid a return to NZ when by hanging on for a few extra months, the tide might change & all would be right. They all realise how fatal it would be to give in now while things are in the balance.
I must tell you the man from Leeds backed out of his bargain at the 11th hour refusing to pay commission. I had asked him to pay the commission as the price was so greatly reduced. It was rather despicable but a sign of the times, or I am told a good example of the way they do business in Yorkshire. Any way it left me up a tree. Imagine my plight! Joy cometh with the morning however & the enclosed slips in a kind letter from Mr Lindner, I found waiting for me at breakfast. He wrote asking me to go over & stay with them & receive my prize in person which I felt very much enclined to do, but by the same post I had 2 letters from ladies asking for particulars of my class & as I want as much as possible to advertise my class I think it better to see the season through, as advertised, & trust to them, & perhaps others joining me. Nearly all the big guns are taking pupils nowadays, it is small wonder that we small fry can’t get along. As the prizes are to be awarded today in London I shall probably get my cheque quite soon & directly it comes I shall leave here and go to a little place, Katwyk, on the sea coast near the Hague, where there is an artists colony & where I shall get braced up with sea breezes. Here my Dutch lady will come to me for another term & if I am able to entice a few more to join me I shall do very nicely. You can’t think how different I feel – the physical side of poverty, the mind acting on the body is what breakes one up. Now I feel I could fight an elephant single handed. Gertrude brought me an all powerful tonic which has made a new man & woman of me. I have authorised her to receive my award & do the polite & politic for me at the Prize giving. She has nice clothes & charming manners and will do it a great deal better than I would. I am sorry you don’t like my pictures I have sent out. You must remember I can’t send out the more attractive ones – it is better that they be shown this side. Miss Richmond is the only one as usual to put in a good word for my work. She knows perhaps I work better for kind words even if I don’t believe them. I would like you to exhibit the little head I sent you Mother dear – it is a style perhaps better understood. Fancy Bert a fireman of the first water – well I hope it will be all practice & oyster suppers. Thank you for Willie’s letter dear – the memory of your toothsome dishes seems to have made a deep hold in his heart. I often long for some of them myself. If only Will & Sis would come Home! How splendid. How glad I am, so very glad to be able to tell you of this good news. I know it will gladden your heart – as it did mine. Much love dearest. Your loving Frances.
Pages
8 pages
Sender's address
Pension Norlaander, Rijsoord
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-21
Credit Line
Correspondence
-
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-21.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22858270
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22858270