Story of Hodgkins’ painting told
Paraparaumu’s Red Capewell may now be in her 80s but age hasn’t dimmed her recollection of the time her mother-in-law Alice, the daughter of an Italian fisherman, was asked by New Zealand’s most acclaimed expatriate painter Frances Hodgkins to sit for two paintings.
Red tells the story in a new short film, Alice’s Secret, produced by Mahara Gallery in Waikanae.
When Hodgkins and her friend Dorothy Kate Richmond came to Paraparaumu on a painting holiday in 1905, they looked for someone to carry their equipment.
“Frances was told to go across the road to the Berretti house because there were four girls there and surely one of them could carry her easel,” said Red Capewell in the film.
“She knocked on the door and Alice Berretti answered and she had her hair all tucked up in a tam ‘o shanter — beautiful, Italian, auburn hair, but she didn’t like it because she got teased.”
When Hodgkins saw the hair she told Alice that she wanted to paint her.
The result was Babette, now held in the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt and The Goose Girl, one of the best known of Hodgkins’ works held in the Ka¯ piti-based Field Collection.
Soon after the sitting, Hodgkins left New Zealand and only returned once before staying permanently in Britain and Europe.
The film gets its title from Alice’s reluctance to tell anybody about the sittings. The family didn’t find out until a gathering to celebrate Alice’s 70th birthday.
The Wellington Evening Post was delivered and one of the family stumbled on a story and photograph telling the story of the red-headed girl who sat for Hodgkins.
“She sort of hung her head,” said Red. “And then she said, ‘Oh, that’s me’.
“And it was just, ‘Mum, why didn’t you tell us?’ and she said she didn’t think anyone would want to know.”
Red is delighted that the film has given her the chance to tell her mother-in-law’s story.
“I’m emotional about it because I’m quite proud of it.
“As a family we’re proud of the fact that Frances Hodgkins painted one of our relatives.”
While Red and gallery director Janet Bayly tell the story, they are joined in the story-telling by Kapanui School pupil Te Korenga Lemmon whose long red hair makes her an ideal young Alice.
It also provides a glimpse inside what used to be Pudney House, the boarding house in Amohia St Paraparaumu where Hodgkins and Dorothy stayed during the painting holiday.
The film underlines the importance of the Field Collection to Ka¯ piti and the possibility that it could be lost to the district if rapid progress isn’t made on bringing Mahara Gallery up to museum standard to accommodate it.
“I’m very strong about the Field Collection staying in Ka¯ piti because it was a Ka¯ piti person who was painted here by such a famous person,” Red said. “How many other people here have been painted by a famous person?
“Let’s keep it here.”
Alice’s Secret has been written and directed by Kevin Ramshaw and filmed and edited by Dean Hapeta of Kia Kaha Productions.
Bayly said the gallery plans to make it available to download from the Mahara Gallery website.