Artist Horace Moore-Jones's ‘‘man on a donkey'' Gallipoli paintings were based on a photograph taken by Dunedin man James Jackson.
A smudgy watercolour of two men and a donkey sold at auction in Auckland last Monday, for $110,000.
That's a high price for a watercolour from the teens of the20th century by a not very well known artist.
The sale made the television news where you could see the painting being knocked down to the highest bidder. It's not the highest price ever paid at auction in New Zealand by a long chalk, though certainly high for a thing of its sort, so why all the fuss?
The painting is by Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones (1868-1922), who was born in England but in 1885 came to New Zealand, where he lived with his parents in Auckland. He moved to Sydney in 1888 and studied art there and in London.
In 1914, he enlisted in the British section of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at the not inconsiderable age of 47. He was caught up in the Anzac action at Gallipoli where he served as a sapper.
His artistic abilities saw him working for Lieutenant-general Sir William Birdwood's Anzac Corps Headquarters making landscape sketches and plans of Allied and Turkish positions, in pencil and watercolour.
He did a series of large drawings and watercolours of the landscape which he continued to work up after he was injured in 1915 and invalided to England.
An exhibition at New Zealand House in London in 1916 caught the public's attention and prints were made of some of the works. There was a private showing to the Royal Family.
Moore-Jones was discharged on medical grounds and returned to New Zealand the same year and some of his work from Gallipoli was exhibited here. Indeed, it toured the country to raise money for the RSA and again attracted widespread interest.
Many, many New Zealanders had relatives who had fought and died at Gallipoli. Moore-Jones's work gave them a glimpse of that savage theatre.
The artist was with the exhibition in Dunedin when he painted the first watercolour of ‘‘the man with his donkey''. It showed one man, in uniform, walking beside the solemn animal, on which another man was mounted, his head bandaged and leaning on the walking man's shoulder. It was based on a photograph by James Jackson, of Dunedin.
The donkey was called Murphy and Moore-Jones thought the man leading it to be John Simpson (1892-1915), an Australian stretcher-bearer who is supposed to have had the idea of using Murphy to help to move the wounded.
While bringing a wounded man down a steep slope, Simpson was killed, but Murphy continued back to camp. In fact, the picture, taken on a pocket Kodak bought by Jackson for £2 15 shillings in Cairo, is of Private Dick Henderson of the New Zealand Medical Corp, who is believed to have taken over where Simpson left off.
Moore-Jones's works were offered for sale to the New Zealand government, which declined the offer, and the collection was bought instead by the Australian government for the Australian War Memorial and is now housed in Canberra.
It includes a painting of Simpson and his donkey.
There was a fire at the Hamilton Hotel in 1922 and Moore-Jones was active rescuing people. He was badly burned and died as a result. His widow sold a painting of Simpson and his donkey to the Auckland Commerce Club in 1926 for £300. They later placed it on indefinite loan to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
In April 2007, a Sydney auctioneer offered a painting by Moore-Jones of Simpson and his donkey for sale, hoping to get $A50,000 for it, which caused some consternation in Auckland. Some people supposed it was the Commerce Club's picture, but it was not.
An art historian who has looked into the matter, Rose Young, stated she knew of six versions and it is difficult to say which is the first.
There are various traditions about when different ones were painted: the Commerce Club's was understood to have been made in 1917 and several are dated 1915 - but that is the date of the scene depicted.
The one sold last Monday was given by the artist to somebody whence it passed by descent until surfacing for sale last week. It is considerably less resolved than the one offered at Sydney last year - by which I mean the Sydney one is in much sharper focus and contains a good deal more detail.
Does that mean it's a better work? Not to my way of thinking. The one offered in Auckland is more gestural, a good deal moodier and, in the treatment of the wounded man's face and neck, positively visceral.
Most of the versions I have seen are more like the Sydney version and emotionally flat. This is much more expressive. Perhaps it is the artist's first reaction to the photograph.
Whether it is or not, it is the association with Gallipoli which has boosted the price. Interest in the subject is growing.
- Peter Entwisle is a Dunedin curator, historian and writer.
