Pohutukawa
Edward Friströmc 1905
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Auckland, New Zealand
An ode to the New Zealand summer, Pohutukawa evokes memories of the warmest months in the upper North Island. Edward Friström avoids visual clichés with his spare use of line and careful selection of jewel-like colours. A gnarled pōhutukawa in bloom fills the picture with just a glimpse of white sand and the sea showing beyond. The surrounding grass is burnt by drought, and the brilliant red pōhutukawa flowers speckle the greenish-black foliage. One feels the heat, and the invitation of the azure water is alluring. It is a modern view: gone are the 19th-century shackles of naturalistic representation, replaced by the reduction of the scene to its most essential and evocative components.
- Title: Pohutukawa
- Creator: Edward Friström
- Creator Lifespan: 1864 - 1950
- Creator Nationality: Sweden; Australia; New Zealand; American
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Birth Place: Sweden
- Date Created: c 1905
- Physical Dimensions: w251 x h178 mm (Without frame)
- Artist biography: Edward Friström was born in 1864. An emigrant from Sweden, via Australia, he brought a fresh approach to a country which to that point had been obsessed by the picturesque and sublime features of its natural environment. While Friström taught briefly at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland his Impressionist approach was not readily taken up by New Zealand artists until the 1930s.
- Type: Painting
- Rights: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1967
- External Link: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- Medium: oil on card
Additional Items
Pohutukawa (Supplemental)
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
