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42-44 Devonport Road, Tauranga

Kathleen's Collection: the Kathleen Kirby Collection 

Kathleen's Collection: the Kathleen Kirkby Collection comprises 26 works that were collected by Kathleen Kirkby and her father, Sir Robert Anderson, throughout their lives.

The collection is now housed in the family home, Anderson Park Art Gallery, in Invercargill.

The collection is an assortment of works often seen in a domestic collection. Both Kathleen and her father had differing tastes in art. 

Kathleen favoured works by New Zealand women artists such as Frances Hodgkins, M.O. Stoddart and Airini Vane, as well as works that had a femininity, or sentimental quality about them.

It is likely the European etchings were collected by Robert Anderson on his travels.

The collection is also a reflection of fashion, and to a certain extent a 'who's who' in the art world. The exhibition includes works by Frances Hodgkins, After Rembrandt, Goldie and Miles Birket Foster, a popular Victorian painter and illustrator.

Kathleen Kirkby spent 55 years living in Tauranga, during which time she devoted much of her time to the Red Cross, receiving a commendation for 40 years of service, and in 1982, she was awarded a Queen's Service Medal. Kirkby died in 1992.

With the generous assistance of the KD Kirkby Trust, Guardian Trust and Anderson Park Art Gallery, her collection has come north to be displayed in the city that Kathleen made her home for 55 years.

 

 

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