Rita Angus
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1908, d.1970
Untitled [Garden at Waikanae]
- 1957
- Watercolour
- Lawrence Baigent / Robert Erwin bequest, 2003
- 580 x 480 x 30mm
- 2003/65
- View on google maps
Tags: easels, furniture, gardens (open spaces), leaf (plant material), outdoor furniture, painting (image making), plein-air, stripes, trees
Several decades separate Rita Angus and Jane Zusters, but both artists were interested in the theme of the domestic garden. Rita was a fiercely independent artist who worked hard to maintain her career and was a role model for later generations. In 1944 she wrote, “I hope that men of culture in NZ will come to understand the woman artist better. […] Some women do not, nor wish to paint as men do.”
Rita and Jane’s works show the garden as a place of contemplation and retreat from the world. Rita’s parents’ garden at Waikanae, the subject in this watercolour, provided a much needed refuge for the artist on several occasions. The domestic garden was not only a place of healing and recuperation for Rita, but also an important source of material for her celebrated flower paintings and still-life subjects.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Exhibition History
[Turn, Turn, Turn: A Year in Art, 27 July 2019 – 8 March 2020] (https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/turn-turn-turn-a-year-in-art)
One of New Zealand’s most talented watercolourists, Rita Angus was introduced to plein-air painting in the late 1920s by her tutor at the Canterbury College School of Art, Cecil Kelly. Kelly encouraged students to paint outdoors to capture and record directly the variety of atmospheric effects and lighting conditions. Angus continued to paint plein-air watercolours throughout her life and this work, painted in 1957, depicts the easel of her close friend and fellow artist, Evelyn Page, set up in Page’s garden at Waikanae.
(Turn, Turn, Turn: A Year in Art, 27 July 2019 – 8 March 2020)
Nature's Own Voice, 6 February - 26 July 2009
One of New Zealand’s most talented watercolourists, Rita Angus was introduced to plein-air painting in the late 1920s by her tutor at the Canterbury College School of Art, Cecil Kelly. Kelly encouraged students to paint outdoors to capture and record directly the variety of atmospheric effects and lighting conditions. Angus continued to paint plein-air watercolours throughout her life and this work, painted in 1957, depicts the easel of her close friend and fellow artist, Evelyn Page, set upin Page’s garden at Waikanae.
Rita Angus regularly stayed at her parents' property in Waikanae throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Located on the west coast north of Wellington, the area offered the artist a retreat from city life. Fellow artist Evelyn Page, one of Angus's close friends, also lived in Waikanae. This scene shows Page's easel set up in her garden. Angus was undoubtedly one of the most talented New Zealand watercolourists of her generation, successfully employing her delicate touch with landscapes, as well as flower studies, still-lifes and portraits. Born in Hastings, Angus studied at the Canterbury College School of Art from 1927 to 1933. In 1930 she married Canterbury artist Alfred Cook and, although they separated in 1934, she continued to sign herself 'Rita Cook' until 1941. She lived and worked in Christchurch until she moved to Wellington in 1955. An Association of New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship awarded in 1958 allowed her to visit England and Europe.