Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947)

Painter, born in Dunedin, New Zealand, who came to London in 1900. She earned the money to do so from piano lessons, selling watercolours and black and white illustrations for newspapers. Hodgkins travelled around Europe, particularly in France and spent ten years in Paris, taking a watercolour class of her own at Académie Colarossi where in 1910 she was appointed the first female teacher. Hodgkins first visited Cornwall in 1902 spending about 3 months there in the springtime having previously attended Norman Garstin's summer sketching classes in France in 1901. Soon after she showed at the Newlyn Art Gallery and then returned to France. She returned to England shortly before the WWI and befriended Cedric Morris who encouraged her to stay, which was to make St. Ives, Cornwall her home until 1920. From 1923-26, she lived in Manchester and while there she worked for the Calico Printing Association and exhibited at the little-known M