Still Life – Lasiandra

Ida Eise trained at the Elam School of Art from 1905 to 1915. From 1916 to 1919, she taught art at New Plymouth Technical College. She worked at Elam from 1920 to 1956, and again, briefly, from 1959 to 1960. From 1961 to 1962, she travelled in the South Pacific, Australia, and Europe, in the company of her Elam colleague, lifelong friend, and possible romantic partner A. Lois White.

Much of her work was devoted to landscape painting in the Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Tai Tokerau areas. Her still lifes, of which this work is a particularly fine example, were imitated by a host of pupils, somewhat devaluing their currency. Like White, Eise had the misfortune to remain on the Elam staff long after her aesthetic values were regarded as relevant by most students.