Preparing the meal, Samoa

Painted during her visit to Samoa, circa 1923-4, this is a fine example of Swanzy's paintings of the South Seas. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Charles Meryon, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gauguin, Emil Nolde and Robert Gibbings, Swanzy was drawn to the warm, relaxed lifestyle and lush landscape of these Pacific islands. During her visit she painted the beautiful brown-skinned women in their colourful patterned dresses, and the lush tropical vegetation of palms and banana trees. Here a woman is shown seated, preparing food in a large shallow bowl, while two other women chat in the background. Swanzy captures well the strong body and brown flesh tones, the red and white necklace, and patterned maroon dress of the woman in the foreground, and the relaxed poses of the other figures. Some of Swanzy's Samoan paintings might be comparable to Gauguin's South Sea works. But, in effect, they are more direct and spontaneous. The present work shows more affinity with Matisse, in the lush and spontaneous painting of the women in their brightly-coloured garments; in, for example, the sketchy suggestion of the woman's maroon dress, and the red and white patterning of the cotton garment behind. Evidently painted rapidly, perhaps even in one sitting, the picture conveys a sense of warmth and harmony. Swanzy held an exhibition of her Samoan canvases in Honolulu in July 1924. An exhibition of her Paintings of Samoa was held at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin, in 1976. J.C.