Douglas J. McLeod

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1906, d.1983

Self Portrait

  • c. 1948
  • Oil on canvas on board
  • Presented by Miss D. McLeod and Mrs V.J. Roberts, 1984
  • 330 x 430mm
  • 84/43

Tags: artists (visual artists), men (male humans), painters (artists), people (agents), portraits, self-portraits

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In this pair of uncompromisingly honest portraits the subjects’ expressions speak of unsentimental observation and patient self-scrutiny. We are given an unexpectedly intimate glimpse into the lives of Oamaru-born, Christchurch-based artist Douglas Jackson McLeod and his wife Fanny, as well as a moving depiction of a couple whose time together was sadly short.McLeod was a well-regarded commercial artist in the local advertising industry through the 1920s and 1930s, and also exhibited regularly with the Canterbury Society of Arts. He was married to Louisa Fanny Werren in 1945, the year before painting this portrait. Fanny, a shorthand-typist, died in Christchurch in 1948, after which time McLeod gave up painting altogether

(Persistent encounters, March 2020, exhibited alongside the artist's self portrait)

Exhibition History

Jacopo Amigoni Bacchus and Ariadne 1730–39. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented to the Canterbury Society of Arts by the Neave family in memory of their brother Kenelm, 1931; given to the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, 1932
Persistent Encounters
Rita Angus A Goddess of Mercy date unknown. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Gallery. Purchased by Christchurch City Council 1956
Portraits and Personalities: Portraits from the Permanent Collection
Image: uploads/2021_07/RealVision.jpg
Real Vision
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Public and Private: Douglas J. McLeod 1906-1983
Image: uploads/2022_07/84_43.jpg
other labels about this work

  • Douglas McLeod was an intensely private man whose work reflected his immediate environment and the people he knew. This moving pair of portraits shows McLeod’s wife, painted shortly before she died, and a self-portrait that is one of the last works McLeod painted before he gave up painting altogether.

    McLeod was born in Oamaru and educated at Richmond School, Christchurch, and the Canterbury College School of Art. He worked in the advertising industry during the 1920s and 1930s, illustrating and designing billboards and posters, and was regarded as one of New Zealand’s most accomplished advertising artists at this time. McLeod also exhibited regularly at the Canterbury Society of Art. A posthumous exhibition of his work was held at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in 1984.

Related

film
Douglas McLeod Artbite

Douglas McLeod Artbite

A short talk presented by artist, curator and critic Grant Banbury in which he discusses two works by Douglas McLeod. This talk was originally given on Friday 28 March 2020.