Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Thank you to book editor Claire Mabey for commissioning this article, which first appeared on The Spinoff on 3 May 2005. *** Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris (who was born in England in 1837 and who died in Nelson in 1925) by Michele Leggott (poet) and Read More…
Author: Catherine Field-Dodgson
New Zealand Liliaceae at Te Papa
Catherine Field-Dodgson and Michele Leggott We’re excited to reveal that Emily Harris’s 1906 New Zealand Liliaceae panel is now in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The museum was the successful bidder in the auction at Webb’s in January and the painting has been fully registered with its own accession number. Emily’s Read More…
More light: Groundwork at Devonport Library in Auckland
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Groundwork came to Devonport Library on Tuesday 15 April, five days after its launch in Wellington. Catherine and her family travelled to Auckland for the event, as did Jo Elliott, Senior Project Editor at Te Papa Press. About 70 people filled the library to welcome Emily Harris into the light Read More…
Rebecca Rice talks about Groundwork at Te Papa
The week before last Rebecca Rice, Acting Head of Art at Te Papa, officially launched our book Groundwork: The art and writing of Emily Cumming Harris in a wonderful evening that brought Emily’s art and writing into the light again. Rebecca’s speech touched on many of the themes in our book and she has kindly Read More…
Out of the shadows: Groundwork launches at Te Papa in Wellington
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Nine years of research and writing culminated last week in the cafe turned launch space at Te Papa in Wellington. More than 120 guests gathered to bring Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris into the light of day. Just prior to the main event, Harris descendants and Read More…
Groundwork: The art and writing of Emily Cumming Harris
Coming to a bookshop near you 10 April 2025 and available from Te Papa Press here. RRP $60.
Emily Harris’s big paintings and their people
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Why did Emily Harris produce so many large oil paintings in 1906? The question has been on our minds since first realising that the oils signed and dated in red at lower left or right are part of an exhibit Emily sent to the International Exhibition in Christchurch that year. Read More…
New Zealand Liliaceae, 1906
Catherine Field-Dodgson and Michele Leggott In January we received an intriguing email from archivist Katherine Pawley at the University of Auckland. ‘It just leapt out at me,’ she told us, indicating a link to a tall skinny painting by an unknown artist at Webb’s auction house in Auckland. As soon as we clicked on the Read More…
Very Unsettled: Sarah Harris Journal 1860
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson The envelope that Gretchen Briant inscribed ‘Grandmother’s letters’ contains more than typings of Sarah Harris’s early letters to her family in England. Twelve pages in Sarah’s hand have been folded into the envelope, not letters but journal notes from 1860, the year of the first Taranaki war. Some miscellaneous notes Read More…
Grandmother’s letters: Sarah Harris 1841 & 1843
Story and photos by Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson The writing on the envelope says ‘Grandmother’s letters.’ The writer is Gretchen Briant and her grandmother is Sarah Harris. Inside the envelope, neatly folded, are four typed letters on foolscap, copies of letters written by Sarah from New Plymouth in 1841 and 1843. They describe the Read More…