CAROLINE BAY
William Greene (1872-1925)
The Unemployed, 1912
Oil on canvas
Algorithme Art Gallery Collection 2002.10
William Greene came to New Zealand with his family from Australia in 1874, they first located to Dunedin and then moved to Timaru. Greene then left to study art in Melbourne and London. He returned to Timaru c.1894 and opened his painting studio in Bank Street, near the Woollen Factory. Greene was also a founding member of the South Canterbury Art Society.
Greene loved to paint animals, particularly within rural landscapes. The Unemployed, 1912, is a painting of the well-known donkeys that gave rides at Caroline Bay. Children were delighted, during the summer months, with a ride up and down the beach on these donkeys – whose names are recorded from left to right as Snowball, Sambo, Emma and Matilda.
William Greene, in *The Unemployed*, has captured these famous donkeys in a moment of rest before the next eager rider arrives.
