Viola Macmillan Brown Notariello
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1897, d.1981
Across the Plains
- 1931
- Oil on canvas
- Gifted to the Gallery by Antonietta Baldacchino and Felicity Brichieri-Colombi, 2007
- 610 x 512mm
- 2007/011
Location: Burdon Family Gallery
Tags: barns, buildings (structures), carts, farms, houses, landscapes (representations), mountains, natural landscapes, plains (landforms), trees
In 1927, a group of local artists including Viola Macmillan Brown Notariello, Evelyn Page and Ngaio Marsh became founders of The Group, which was intended as a more contemporary exhibiting outlet than the long established Canterbury Society of Arts in Ōtautahi Christchurch. The artist lived with her father, Canterbury College professor John Macmillan Brown, on the slopes of Cashmere hills, not far from where this tranquil, semi-rural scene was painted. Across the Plains is one of eleven works she exhibited with The Group in 1931. The old brickworks complex visible in this painting was located in Port Hills Road (now Centaurus Road in the suburb of Huntsbury).
(From Here on the Ground, 18 May – 17 November 2024)
Exhibition History
Turn, Turn. Turn, 29 July 2019 – 8 March 2020
Painted in morning light, evidently in spring, this attractive view captures the semi-rural outskirts of Christchurch from the lower slopes of the Huntsbury foothills, looking north towards distant Mount Grey. The painting’s elevated vantage point, together with its soft, restricted palette and decorative qualities link it to the work of artists such as Rhona Haszard and Sydney Lough Thompson.
Viola Macmillan Brown Notariello was born in Christchurch in 1897, the daughter of Professor John Macmillan Brown and Helen Connon. She studied at Canterbury College School of Art from c.1915-1922, together with her friend Evelyn Page and close relative Ngaio Marsh. After graduating, she exhibited in Christchurch from the late 1920s with The Group. She emigrated after meeting an Italian tenor on tour in New Zealand with Dame Nellie Melba, and they married in England in 1936. She continued her art studies in Europe and exhibited occasionally in England.
Painted in morning light, evidently in spring, this attractive view captures the semi-rural outskirts of Christchurch from the lower slopes of the Huntsbury foothills, looking north towards distant Mount Grey. The painting’s elevated vantage point, together with its soft, restricted palette and decorative qualities link it to the work of artists such as Rhona Haszard and Sydney Lough Thompson.
Viola Macmillan Brown Notariello was born in Christchurch in 1897, the daughter of Professor John Macmillan Brown and Helen Connon. She studied at Canterbury College School of Art from c.1915-1922, together with her friend Evelyn Page and close relative Ngaio Marsh. After graduating, she exhibited in Christchurch from the late 1920s with The Group. She emigrated after meeting an Italian tenor on tour in New Zealand with Dame Nellie Melba, and they married in England in 1936. She continued her art studies in Europe and exhibited occasionally in England.
Related
1931
The Group Show catalogue 1931.
Kindly supplied by the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury.
Items MB194-12-7-1 and MB194-12-7-2
This catalogue is incomplete but it is the only one known to have survived. Other artists known from press reviews to have exhibited at this exhibition are Margaret Anderson (1903-1997), Willliam Baverstock (1893-1975), James Cook (1904-1960), Robert Nettleton Field (1899-1987) and W H Montgomery (1866-1958).
Details of these reviews can be found here.
If you know where we could find a complete copy of this catalogue, please tell us.
Commentary
The World Tossed Continuously in a Riot of Colour, Form, Sound
One hundred and twenty five years ago, after years of political struggle, Aotearoa New Zealand granted all adults the right to vote by extending suffrage to women. To mark this anniversary, for this issue of Bulletin our curators have written about some of the Gallery’s significant – yet lesser-known – nineteenth and mid-twentieth-century works by women. Our intention is to make these paintings, and the cultural contribution of the artists, more visible in 2018.
Notes
Across the plains by Viola Macmillan Brown Notariello
This article first appeared as 'Her own voice' in The Press on 23 November 2012.