Betty Harrison

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1912, d.1937

Persimmon (Study of a Racehorse)

c. 1930
Painted plaster
Gift of J.H. McGregor, 2008
730 x 300 x 860mm
2008/011

Chrystabel Aitken and Betty Harrison both grew up in rural communities where they developed a great love of animals – an interest they both explored as students studying sculpture under Shurrock at the Canterbury College School of Art during the 1920s and 30s. Aitken’s interest in the natural world was manifest in her sculptures, prints, applied arts and ceramics, most of which focused on depictions of animals. A Bull is her tribute to the famous nineteenth-century French painter and sculptor of animals, Rosa Bonheur. Aitken flourished under Shurrock and in 1926 was appointed his assistant at the art school, leading to a close friendship for the remainder of their lives. Harrison studied sculpture under Shurrock. Persimmon (Study of a Racehorse) suggests a talented, promising student, but she decided to change career paths in the 1930s to become a nurse. Harrison died tragically young in 1937, aged just twenty-five.

(Dear Shurrie: Francis Shurrock and his contemporaries, 8 March – 13 July 2025)

Exhibition History

other labels about this work

Beasts, 18 December 2015 – 30 April 2017

Nora Elizabeth (Betty) Harrison grew up in rural Canterbury, where she developed a passion for horses. She brought her knowledge of horses to creating this plaster sculpture, painted to resemble bronze. It is believed to have been modelled after a photograph of a famous stud racehorse owned by King Edward VII.

Harrison was at the Canterbury College School of Art when she made this work. A top student there in the 1920s while in her teenage years, she studied there until 1930 and then went into nursing. Tragically, she caught tuberculosis from a patient and died aged just twenty-five.