Fine Art Auction Part I Saturday, 14 November 2026 / 11:00 am start
Margaret Stoddart - ‘Michaelmas Daisies’, Watercolour & Gouache, 1887
Current Bid $10 (1 bid, reserve not met)
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Lot Details
Margaret Stoddart (1865 - 1934) Michaelmas Daisies (1887) Watercolour & Gouache Initialled MOS & dated 1887 bottom left 225 x 325mm Provenance: Private collection, Christchurch Condition: Good As an 1887 work by Margaret Stoddart, this is a highly significant example of her early academic botanical studies, painted while she was a student at the Canterbury College School of Art in Christchurch. A ‘daughter of Canterbury’, Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour. Her father was “a gentleman”, the adventuring son of a Scottish admiral, and her mother a Norwegian governess. The family went “home” to Edinburgh, where Margaret received her first drawing lessons, before returning to Christchurch in 1879. Margaret studied with her sisters at the Canterbury College School of Art, completing her studies in 1890. Art was an acceptable occupation for middle-class women, allowing a degree of financial independence without compromising their social position, and flowers were an obviously suitable subject. Her flower paintings were immediately popular. In this work, vibrant blooms, carefully observed and expertly delineated, burst from a simple, worn terracotta pot towards the sunlight; every stamen sparkles. Stoddart’s genuine love of flowers – the absolute joy of them – was lifelong.
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