The Pumpkin Cottage Art Collection
The Pumpkin Cottage collection is a nationally significant collection of work from the early impressionist movement which was nurtured at the legendary Pumpkin Cottage, Silverstream, Upper Hutt. It features paintings by James Nairn, Mabel Hill, Girolamo Nerli, Frances Hodgkins and Nugent Welch among others.
Local art collectors Ernest and his wife Shirley gifted 39 Pumpkin Cottage paintings to Expressions Whirinaki Trust for the people of Upper Hutt in 2009 and the works have been in the Centre's safe keeping ever since. These significant Pumpkin Cottage paintings are the City's first permanent art collection which continues to grow thanks to several generous gifts.
Visit Upper Hutt's WHIRINAKI ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE to see these wonderful Impressionists paintings.
Pumpkin Cottage, Silverstream, Wellington
Pumpkin Cottage, Silverstream, Wellington [1930]
by Higgs, Sydney Hamlet (1884-1978)
View of a cottage with a high-pitched roof, surrounded by trees, three people seated on the front verandah.
Historical Notes: Cottage of James Nairn, where Higgs and Nugent Welch often stayed. Pumpkin cottage originally belonged to James Nairn, then passed to Nugent Welch. Welch taught art to Sydney Higgs and introduced him to the Wellington Art Club; the two often stayed at Pumpkin Cottage, where Higgs began his life-long interest in painting rivers.
National Library of New Zealand