Last week The CO News reported that the Gold Rush panels, painted by Russell Clark in 1936 for the City Hotel, in Dunedin, were on display at Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery, in Alexandra.
Clark was 31 years old when he painted the series of panels depicting the 1860s Central Otago gold rush, allegedly to pay off his food and drink bill at the hotel — although that could not be verified.
He used what were new techniques for the work, including airbrushing, stencilling and using a projector to enlarge his paper drawings.
There was evidence of further work on them in the Dunedin scenes after Clark’s initial painting as the City Hotel has a sign saying "City Hotel, C.S. Elms Propr" — referring to Tui Elms, who owned the hotel before his son Stewart took over.
The late Stewart Elms removed the Gold Rush panels from the City Hotel after he sold it in the early 1980s.
The hotel was later demolished.
Mr Elms’ daughter Kate Barnett said Mr Elms carefully stored the panels at his newly established Felton Rd winery after moving to Central Otago to make wine in 1990s.
He asked Central Otago artist Sir Grahame Sydney for advice on what to do with the 28, panels, 1.5m square.
They were ultimately sold to the museum, she said.
Mr Elms said he commissioned Clark to repaint the panels in 1962 following a fire.
Initially it was thought unlikely Clark would have done the repair work on the panels as by the 1960s was a tutor at Ilam School of Fine Arts, in Christchurch, and a modernist sculptor.
Adding to the intrigue, the panels appeared to have been painted on wallpaper and there was no evidence of Clark working on them in Dunedin in the 1960s.
However, there were two fires at the hotel which may have led to the confusion about when they were repainted and by whom.
In February 1952, the Otago Daily Times reported a fire at the City Hotel.
"A major outbreak of fire in the City Hotel before noon yesterday was averted by the prompt and efficient action of the Metropolitan Brigade," the newspaper reported.
Water and smoke caused a considerable amount of damage but the hotel was still able to cater for its guests, the report said.
A decade later there was another fire at the premises and it was after that fire the panels were repainted by Clark.
On December 12, 1962 The Press ran a story about Clark putting the finishing touches on a "massive mural for a Dunedin bar".
According to The Press Clark was commissioned to paint New Zealand’s largest mural at that time for the main bar of the City Hotel, in Dunedin, in 1937.
The theme was "World Tour" with scenes from many lands.
The job took six months, the report said.
"This year there was a fire in the hotel.
"The paintings ‘baked off’ their panels but the boards and frames were still sound.
"Mr Clark had them sent to Christchurch, resurfaced with high-grade wallpaper and set to work again."
With 25 years’ experience he had taken just one month to complete the panels with the gold rush theme dealing "whimsically with a story historical only in its background".
Clark had evidently had fun with the theme.
"The whole thing is a joke and I’ve enjoyed doing it," he said at the time.
