Image: Dunedin Public Art Gallery, London
Dunedin Public Art Gallery is drawing attention to a late-career Walter Sickert painting in its collection as part of its exhibition ‘Te Ahikāroa — Artists & Stories of Dunedin Public Art Gallery’. The work, ‘Peggy Ashcroft and Valerie Tudor in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’’ (1932-33), was acquired by the gallery in 1956 and is presented as one example of how the collection connects artworks to wider histories of making, performance and display.
The gallery’s newsletter describes Sickert as an artist influential in ushering in the era of British Modernism. Born in Munich in 1860, he moved to England with his family at the age of eight. The source material says he initially pursued acting before turning to painting, a background that appears to resonate strongly with the subject matter he returned to throughout his career: music halls, actors and audiences. The painting under discussion is one of several works based on actress Peggy Ashcroft in her role as Kate Hardcastle during the 1932-33 season of Oliver Goldsmith’s comedy ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ at London’s Old Vic theatre.
According to the gallery, Sickert was often present at those performances with a photographer who took stage images that he later used as inspiration for his paintings. That practice places the work at the intersection of observation, theatre and mediated imagery, while also underscoring the artist’s long-standing interest in subjects caught in the midst of action rather than arranged in a static pose. The newsletter frames Ashcroft as something of a muse in Sickert’s late career, but does not elaborate beyond that relationship.
Formally, the painting is described as innovative for its time. The gallery points to loose brushwork and a reserved palette of blues, browns and whites, with Ashcroft and Valerie Tudor caught mid-dialogue and “bleached white” by stage lights against a deep blue background. In the institution’s account, the work demonstrates Sickert’s ability to portray figures in motion and to translate the intensity of a theatrical moment into paint.
‘Te Ahikāroa — Artists & Stories of Dunedin Public Art Gallery’ runs from 28 March 2026 to 30 June 2027. The exhibition presents works from the gallery’s collection and traces stories gathered since the collection was first exhibited in 1884. The gallery says the project celebrates art and artists, the paths that have brought works to Ōtepoti Dunedin, and the relationships that emerge when art, ideas and people come together.
The exhibition also situates the collection within the gallery’s institutional history. Its description notes that Te Ahikāroa acknowledges mana whenua in its opening space through photography, sculpture, poetry and waiata, before moving through galleries in which artworks spanning centuries, cultures and geographies reveal the breadth of the collection. In this framework, Sickert’s painting sits alongside works by artists from Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond, including historical and contemporary holdings, as part of a larger account of arrivals, departures, new foundations and relationships.
The newsletter item is part of DPAG ARTPOST #294, issued on 21 July 2026, and focuses specifically on the Sickert painting on display in ‘Te Ahikāroa’. Its account places the work’s subject matter, material handling and acquisition history at the centre of the story, with the painting remaining in the gallery’s collection in Dunedin.
