Artwork
His only pair
His only pair is an oil painting by the Ashcan School artist Frederick Bauhof. It dates from 1912 and is held in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
About this work
Overview
Frederick Bauhof’s oil painting His only pair, completed in 1912, is a modest genre work now in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The canvas measures a typical size for domestic scenes of the period and presents a quiet interior moment rendered in muted tones.
Subject & Meaning
The composition shows a woman seated in a chair, absorbed in sewing, her long skirt and apron suggesting a working‑class setting. A young boy stands nearby, his short jacket and shorts indicating youth. The juxtaposition of the woman’s focused activity with the boy’s attentive presence conveys a sense of familial routine and understated affection.
Technique & Style
Bauhof employs a restrained palette and soft chiaroscuro to model the figures against a dimly lit room. The light falls gently on the woman’s hands and the boy’s face, while the background, marked by a dresser and a framed picture, recedes into shadow, creating depth without overt drama.
History & Provenance
Painted in the early twentieth century, His only pair entered the Te Papa collection as part of a broader acquisition of New Zealand’s colonial-era artworks. Its provenance traces back to private ownership before being donated to the national museum, where it has been displayed as an example of everyday life in early 1900s domestic interiors.
Artist & collection
Artist
Frederick Bauhof kept to himself in a rented studio above a Berlin bakery, where the smell of fresh bread seeped through the floorboards.
Museum
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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