Researching John Weeks

Born in Sydenham Damerel, Devon, England, on 8 June 1886, Weeks came to New Zealand as a child with his parents in 1892. He commenced part-time study at the Elam School of Fine Art in 1908, with further training at Sydney Technical College just prior to World War I. During the war he served in France with the New Zealand Medical Corps and some small watercolours from this time are held by the Auckland Museum. He broke his arms and one leg. He continued his studies after the war at the Canterbury College School of Art.

From 1923 to 1930 he travelled extensively in Europe, studying intermittently in Edinburgh and at André Lhote's academy, where he was influenced by the cubist movement.

In 1930 Weeks joined the staff at Elam where he was an influential and popular lecturer, representing a more 'modernist' approach than his contemporaries, until his retirement in 1954. In January 1949 much of Weeks' best work was destroyed in a fire at Elam, while he had over 300 of his paintings assembled for selection for a forthcoming exhibition.

In 1955, Weeks was the subject of the first solo show at the Auckland City Art Gallery (now the Auckland Art Gallery dedicated to a New Zealand artist.

In the 1958 Queen's Birthday Honours, Weeks was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services as an artist.

After his death on 10 September 1965, around 150 of his works were selected by friends and colleagues for purchase by the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust and sent to several major New Zealand galleries.

John Weeks was born in Dartmouth, Devon in 1799. A CMS missionary in Sierra Leone from 1825 to 1844 when ill-health caused his return to England, he became incumbent of St Thomas's Church and headmaster of Cranbrook School, Lambeth until his appointment to the episcopate. He became a Doctor of Divinity (DD). On 7 December 1826, Weeks married his first wife Anna Pope, née Haynes, widow of John Pope, a missionary who died after only 6 months of service in Sierra Leone. She predeceased him 10 January 1839. His second wife Phoebe Graham, née Davey, née Goodwin, from Bungay in Suffolk, widow of Henry Graham, died in 1866 and was buried in West Norwood.