Mountford Tosswill (Toss) Woollaston New Zealand, 1910-98
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About Toss Woollaston
Born in Taranaki, New Zealand in 1910, Tosswill Woollaston was one of New Zealand's best known artists. He first studied whilst a member of the Nelson Suter Sketch club, later under Hugh Scott in Wellington and with R N Field at Dunedin Technical College. He held his first one man show in Dunedin in 1936. Apart from a brief visit to Australia in 1958 and one to Europe and the USA in 1960, Woollaston has spent his life in New Zealand. Most of his paintings are centred around Nelson and Greymouth, and include landscapes and portraits. In 1979 he was knighted.
Toss Woollaston is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1988 of 917, of which 630 (69%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $341,555 for Lake Wakatipu, Coronet Peak, 1973 - 4 sold by Webb's in November 2023. This year 11 works have been offered for sale. Works by Toss Woollaston are held by the Suter Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery and a further four major public national galleries (see list below).
Toss Woollaston is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- Gil Docking, with additions by Michael Gunn covering 1970-90. Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Painting, David Bateman Ltd., New Zealand, 1990 Page 156
- McGahey, Kate. The Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists Painters Printmakers Sculptors, Gilt Edge Publishing, Wellington, New Zealand, 2000. Page 275
- The Find New Zealand Artists web site: a database of artist names that directs researchers to the rich resources found in New Zealand's libraries, art society exhibition histories and published sources.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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