EKB: Artist & Friend

Talented, ambitious and independent: as a female artist in Wellington at the turn of the 20th century, it's easy to see how Edith Kathleen Bendall captivated the teenage Katherine Mansfield. This exhibition, the first of her work in over 30 years, explores the life and work of a fascinating woman.

“The Little Girl with the Fringe is fascinating me – in fact all of them are wonderfully beautiful – I wish that I was as advanced in my Art as you in yours – but I’m far from it… Goodnight – darling – Your devoted K M B” - from the only surviving letter from Katherine Mansfield to Edith Kathleen Bendall, c1907.

Edith Kathleen Bendall was an artist, centenarian and close friend of Katherine Mansfield during her last year in New Zealand. As a young woman at the turn of the 20th-century, she travelled to Sydney for training and found work illustrating for major newspapers and well-known children's authors. After her marriage to Gerald Robison, she became Edith Kathleen Robison and continued to exhibit and sell work into her nineties. She fondly remembered her friendship with the teenage Mansfield, whose intense journal entries from the time show Mansfield was captivated by Bendall and suggest a passionate relationship between the two young women.

This exhibition, the first of her work in over 30 years, includes a selection of her work from throughout her career and explores the life of a fascinating woman whose sketchbook was never far from her hand.

Exhibition included in admission to the house.