BAILLIE, John Denzil 1866?-1926

Probably born in Wellington and son of a John Baillie who lived in Vivian Street in 1866. Although a working member of the NZ Academy of Fine Arts 1891–95, an office holder 1892–93, exhibiting watercolours and oils with them in 1891 he did not exhibit 1893–94 but was the Secretary of, and exhibited with, the Wellington Art Club led by Nairn. In 1897 he dissolved a partnership with his brother and left for England. In 1901 the artist Frances Hodgkins wrote of him as an art dealer in Bayswater, London, showing many New Zealand painters: in 1911 the NZ Academy of Fine Arts arranged for him to bring out to New Zealand 400 works by British painters, a preliminary to the formation of the National Gallery in Wellington. In 1914 brought out another collection and seems to have stayed on in New Zealand. By 1923 was in Auckland. Exhibited with ASA 1923–25. Represented in NAG and Turnbull.