Simpson and his donkey, Gallipoli painting

Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones, Private Simpson, D.C.M., & his donkey at Anzac, 1918.

Moore-Jones’s most widely recognised work was not painted at the battlefront, but from a photograph. His depiction of Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey was done when Moore-Jones was touring his watercolours in Dunedin in 1918, three years after the Gallipoli landings.

The photograph this painting is based on is actually of a New Zealand medic, Richard Henderson. Henderson served in Gallipoli and later on the Western Front. Moore-Jones altered the composition of the photo to make for a more dramatic drawing.

Credit

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: C-057-002
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

How to cite this page: 'Simpson and his donkey, Gallipoli painting', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/simpson-and-his-donkey, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 20-Dec-2012

Community contributions


Anonymous
29 Sep 2008
This picture does noy actually depict Simpson. It was based on a photograph of a NZ soldier, Private Richard Alexander Henderson, taken by Private James Gardiner Jackson, whose brother showed the photograph to Moore-Jones.

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