“Eyes are eyes & can’t be neglected”: A New Insight into Frances Hodgkins?

Abstract

An aspect of the Anglo-New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins (1869­­–1947) which has been largely overlooked by art historians is the challenges that she faced with her eyesight, particularly from the 1930s onwards. These are documented here, using her letters to family and friends. The article then applies findings in the pioneering studies of art and ophthalmology by Patrick Trevor-Roper and John S. Werner to a selection of Hodgkins’ paintings of the period. Links are made between her use of colour ­– which earlier writers have described as lyrical and “rapturous” – and the strong probability that she was suffering from cataracts.