Adele Younghusband (1878 – 1969) is a remarkable figure in New Zealand’s cultural history. Born in Te Awamutu in 1878, Younghusband lived a somewhat nomadic life, based at various times in Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga, and Hamilton among other places. She was deeply involved in the development of a number of arts organisations, including establishing the Waikato Society of Arts with Ida Carey in 1934. Younghusband ran a photographic enterprise in Whangarei in the early 1920s, and established herself as a portrait photographer. It wasn’t until she was in her 40s that she seriously pursued painting, studying the artform in Australia. She became a highly accomplished painter, producing a rich body of work that is held in many of the major collecting institutions in New Zealand.

Younghusband painted Road Up Coromandel Peninsula in 1931. The work demonstrates her compositional flair and deft handling of paint. In its stylised depiction of the landscape, heavy outlines, and intentionally textural brushwork, the artist’s growing awareness of modernist developments are evident.

This work appears courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Collection.