Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Will Field
Date
30 Mar 1918
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Object Detail
Date
30 Mar 1918
Transcript
Wharf Studio St Ives March 30th
My Dear Will
Very many thanks for yours of the 17th Jany with £5 for Geoff. It is awfully good of you. It helps a lot towards the parcels. I have been sending as much as possible before the food rations next week, tho’ we are asked not to send food out of the country. I somehow feel Geoff’s needs are greater than ours. I am concerned about him & have eased my mind by writing to the High Commissioner for news. It is so long since he has written & I don’t know whether he gets my parcels or not. Anxiety is great. A terrible week of suspense. I hope Geoff has been able to cable you since the offensive started. It must be awful for you & Sis living thro’ this ordeal. He is sure to have been in it considering the length of Front involved. I want to find out at once what has happened to him – supposing he has been taken prisoner I will send food at once & as often as I can get it together. I hear there were not so many prisoners taken of the 3rd Army in the North. It was the Fifth wh got so mauled in the South. Why? On the whole people are taking it well. English people are at their best at times like this – if there ever has been such a time before in history. We are not out of the wood yet but the worst of the cyclone has passed and we are unshattered. And Foch steps in & there is a great wave of hope that the next phase will turn the tables in our favour. The weather is diabolically in favour of the Hun, splendid bright days & moonlight nights – the sight of the moon almost makes one physically sick. My main concern is Geoff – if only I knew. I think of it all the time especially meal time & wonder what he is up against. If he is amongst the slain, Peace is with him & he will have many of his friends beside him. We won’t find another Geoff. He is so sweet & dear & I love to think of the few days I had of him. I have fine plans for his next visit when it comes. On St Patrick’s Day I sent him some shamrock brought to me by Mrs TP O’Connor who is staying here. She said “I always bring luck with me”, so I put some sprigs in a parcel & sent it off in the morning with many blessings. Did I tell you that I had met a New Zealander outside the Studio one day lately & spoke to him. He was an Otago Rifleman, Pyle by name, & turned out to have been in the Bank NSW in Southland & his old Grand Dad had been painted by Father in his “Cold Escort” picture. He was Suprtdt Fox – of the Police Force in those days. I asked him in to tea & had a talk. Heard a lot about Otago men. He had been in Egypt & crocked up with consumption (called bronchitis) & was being sent back to N.Z. I scribbled a line to you, knowing you would give him a kind word if he looked you up when passing thro’. Hot springs is what he needs.
Don’t send any more money, unless I ask for it. Am doing much better now. Portraits are a paying “stunt” and I have made quite a bit by the last set. If I can confirm this bit all will be well & future certain. Told yesterday Mr Lindner stakes his reputation that my future is certain. Hope so. I have never doubted it if only I can live long enough. What I want is a small & tidy income so that I need not have to fight for daily bread. Truly living is a fine art these days. Yesterday I sold a 12 gn baby. Item: Paint more babies! In fact keep the cradle full to quote an old friend of yours. Where the shoe pinches me is that I haven’t any more business sense that a wild foal in the field – tho’ don’t say I said so.
The other day 3 nice girls, all from N.Z., blew in to the Studio – Miss Denniston of Peel Forest, Barker ditto & Beatrice Wood from Chch, a bright fair haired girl with a fluffy dog in her arms. She wanted me to paint her a sketch of herself for her Dad – Wiliam Wood – which I did! She was awfully pleased & sent a cheque for 8 gns and has dunned her Father for the balance of £12.12. She is a masterful young person – of the nice sort, & I would like to adopt her. Now, she is endowed with a business sense, inherited no doubt from that big family of miller & merchant Woods I used to know as young men in my youth in Chch. She says her Father knows Sis. Her Mother was a Loughnan.
Have had a hamper of food of all sorts from potatoes to Allenby’s Food for Invalides, sent from Norfolk by a kind woman who was here & had her portrait painted the other day. Have not seen so much to eat for a long while – was able to make Geoff’s parcel quite attractive.
The Sydney pictures had not turned up when last I heard, 3 months out is a longish time, & I am feeling anxious. Judge Rich was to be responsible for a Bank Guarantee & deposit, which the brutal Customs exacted in spite of their being consigned to the Art Gallery.
I am so glad about Willie’s return. I shall write & congratulate him. Invercargill is a wretched hole for a white man. But he won’t be there always. I am trying to get away for a little change. Have been sticking to work rather closely & am deadly tired with the strain of everything but farmers are all planting potatoes like mad & won’t look at you. Miss Wood is coming with me if I can find a farmhouse handy. Love to all Yrs affectionately Fanny
My Dear Will
Very many thanks for yours of the 17th Jany with £5 for Geoff. It is awfully good of you. It helps a lot towards the parcels. I have been sending as much as possible before the food rations next week, tho’ we are asked not to send food out of the country. I somehow feel Geoff’s needs are greater than ours. I am concerned about him & have eased my mind by writing to the High Commissioner for news. It is so long since he has written & I don’t know whether he gets my parcels or not. Anxiety is great. A terrible week of suspense. I hope Geoff has been able to cable you since the offensive started. It must be awful for you & Sis living thro’ this ordeal. He is sure to have been in it considering the length of Front involved. I want to find out at once what has happened to him – supposing he has been taken prisoner I will send food at once & as often as I can get it together. I hear there were not so many prisoners taken of the 3rd Army in the North. It was the Fifth wh got so mauled in the South. Why? On the whole people are taking it well. English people are at their best at times like this – if there ever has been such a time before in history. We are not out of the wood yet but the worst of the cyclone has passed and we are unshattered. And Foch steps in & there is a great wave of hope that the next phase will turn the tables in our favour. The weather is diabolically in favour of the Hun, splendid bright days & moonlight nights – the sight of the moon almost makes one physically sick. My main concern is Geoff – if only I knew. I think of it all the time especially meal time & wonder what he is up against. If he is amongst the slain, Peace is with him & he will have many of his friends beside him. We won’t find another Geoff. He is so sweet & dear & I love to think of the few days I had of him. I have fine plans for his next visit when it comes. On St Patrick’s Day I sent him some shamrock brought to me by Mrs TP O’Connor who is staying here. She said “I always bring luck with me”, so I put some sprigs in a parcel & sent it off in the morning with many blessings. Did I tell you that I had met a New Zealander outside the Studio one day lately & spoke to him. He was an Otago Rifleman, Pyle by name, & turned out to have been in the Bank NSW in Southland & his old Grand Dad had been painted by Father in his “Cold Escort” picture. He was Suprtdt Fox – of the Police Force in those days. I asked him in to tea & had a talk. Heard a lot about Otago men. He had been in Egypt & crocked up with consumption (called bronchitis) & was being sent back to N.Z. I scribbled a line to you, knowing you would give him a kind word if he looked you up when passing thro’. Hot springs is what he needs.
Don’t send any more money, unless I ask for it. Am doing much better now. Portraits are a paying “stunt” and I have made quite a bit by the last set. If I can confirm this bit all will be well & future certain. Told yesterday Mr Lindner stakes his reputation that my future is certain. Hope so. I have never doubted it if only I can live long enough. What I want is a small & tidy income so that I need not have to fight for daily bread. Truly living is a fine art these days. Yesterday I sold a 12 gn baby. Item: Paint more babies! In fact keep the cradle full to quote an old friend of yours. Where the shoe pinches me is that I haven’t any more business sense that a wild foal in the field – tho’ don’t say I said so.
The other day 3 nice girls, all from N.Z., blew in to the Studio – Miss Denniston of Peel Forest, Barker ditto & Beatrice Wood from Chch, a bright fair haired girl with a fluffy dog in her arms. She wanted me to paint her a sketch of herself for her Dad – Wiliam Wood – which I did! She was awfully pleased & sent a cheque for 8 gns and has dunned her Father for the balance of £12.12. She is a masterful young person – of the nice sort, & I would like to adopt her. Now, she is endowed with a business sense, inherited no doubt from that big family of miller & merchant Woods I used to know as young men in my youth in Chch. She says her Father knows Sis. Her Mother was a Loughnan.
Have had a hamper of food of all sorts from potatoes to Allenby’s Food for Invalides, sent from Norfolk by a kind woman who was here & had her portrait painted the other day. Have not seen so much to eat for a long while – was able to make Geoff’s parcel quite attractive.
The Sydney pictures had not turned up when last I heard, 3 months out is a longish time, & I am feeling anxious. Judge Rich was to be responsible for a Bank Guarantee & deposit, which the brutal Customs exacted in spite of their being consigned to the Art Gallery.
I am so glad about Willie’s return. I shall write & congratulate him. Invercargill is a wretched hole for a white man. But he won’t be there always. I am trying to get away for a little change. Have been sticking to work rather closely & am deadly tired with the strain of everything but farmers are all planting potatoes like mad & won’t look at you. Miss Wood is coming with me if I can find a farmhouse handy. Love to all Yrs affectionately Fanny
Pages
7 pages
Sender's address
Wharf Studio, St Ives
Recipient's address
W.H.Field M.P. Solicitor, Wellington, N.Z. P.M. 1 Apr. 18
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-34
Credit Line
Letters.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-34.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23182852
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23182852