'The Golden Day' was James Boswell's last work. Commissioned in 1970 by BP, Wellington, NZ, it hung for many years in their Wellington Head Quarters. It was subsequently bought by Boswell's cousins, Derek and Eileen Fair and is now on loan to the Te Manawa Art Gallery & Museum,Palmerston North, N.Z. It hangs in the Gallery's Meeting Room.
'This mural has for its theme the passing of a day. From left to right the five divisions show Dusk, Night, Dawn, Noon, Evening.
The choice of theme was made to symbolise the passage of time against a curtain of movement. Its subject matter is simply the sun and moon, set against the flowing tidal waters of a river mouth which, in the final panel, reaches the sea.
There is a special beauty in this equivocal kind of 'edge' where the land is not wholly land nor water but is constantly changing as the planet turns and the tides move.' (James Boswell).
