Appeal to Find Ron Stenberg’s Scottish Wifies

One of Scotland’s leading art galleries is launching an appeal to discover the identity of two elderly Dundee women depicted in an oil painting, which has been gifted to the city by New Zealand artist Ron Stenberg.

Stenberg’s Two Auld Wifies, Dundee (1982), which is due to go on display later this year at The McManus art gallery and museum in Dundee, features the women who used to meet up for a chat and sit outside a Boots the chemist every Friday afternoon after doing their shopping.

Stenberg, 96, turned down two “considerable” offers – one of around £100,000 – from private collectors eager to expand their collection of Scottish art, to give the painting to the city of Dundee. It has arrived in Scotland after being shipped over from Auckland.

Stenberg, who was head of department at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in the city before returning to New Zealand in 1991, did sketches of the pair before completing the work at his studio in Wormit, Newport-on-Tay.

Curator at The McManus Susan Keracher said the gallery wanted people to come forward if they recognised the women.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have this painting. It’s a fabulous double portrait of very ordinary people, two wifies,” Keracher said.

Stenberg was accepted into the Elam School of Art in Auckland at the age of 12. He served as a mapping officer in the Second World War, arriving in Dundee in 1960. He became artist in residence with the Black Watch in Germany and has a painting in the Queen’s private collection.

Original article by Shan Ross, The Scotsman, August 16, 2015.