Leslie Greener

Rhona Haszard and Leslie Greener met as art students in Ōtautahi Christchurch around 1924 and left for Europe in early 1926. Often short of money, they managed to travel to and paint at the small Channel Island of Sark as well as in Brittany and the Marne Valley in France. The couple moved to Alexandria in Egypt in late 1927 where Greener took up a teaching position. Greener later recalled how, in 1926, they had so relished cycling across “… the lonely hills in the centre of Brittany, poking into the low grey churches and wandering market-places, until we reached Camaret, that little town of huddled roofs and gold and red sails that was an unending source of motifs for us … which we claimed as our very own artistic discovery.” Greener believed Haszard did some of her best work at Camaret, including The Sea and the Bay.

(Timeless: Treasures from the Historical Collection 19 September 2026 – 30 May 2027)

The rue de la Poste is now known as Abbas Mahmoud El-Akad Street