Rita Angus
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1908, d.1970
Mountains, Cass
- 1936
- Watercolour
- Presented by Robert Erwin in memory of Lawrence Baigent, 1985
- 502 x 626mm
- 85/21
- View on google maps
Tags: buildings (structures), chimneys (architectural elements), clouds, grasses (plants), huts (houses), landscapes (representations), mountains, stylization, trees
Rita Angus never forgot the experience of sketching at Cass, an isolated place nestled in the high country of Te Waipounamu that she visited on a 1936 painting trip with artists Louise Henderson and Julia Scarvell. Although her oil painting of its isolated railway station (currently on display nearby in From Here on the Ground) is more famous, this dazzling watercolour is a vivid record of the exhilaration and inspiration she felt when working in this landscape. A small hut in state of disrepair is dwarfed by the hills, mountains and sky that surround it, all of which seem alive with colour and presence. Angus later recalled how reading notes she made during that trip took her back to "those days of clear blue green skies, sun setting behind the dark hills, cold shadows... They were happy days. I long for a later return into the mountains."
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022-21 July 2024 )
Exhibition History
In the vast emptiness, 8 January - 21 August 2016
“I was glad to see this painting again for a few minutes. […] I was ‘knocked out’ by the clear admission of truth. I am amazed that at one time (years ago), and in about three to four hours, I had the power & courage to paint Cass.”
—Rita Angus
Cass is 116 kilometres north-west of Christchurch, a small unpopulated place where travellers passed in trains or stopped off briefly in transit. Rita Angus has caught this sense of isolation with a small, solitary hut in a state of disrepair set against dominating landforms. Angus has a unique style of realism that uses clearly defined shapes, blocks of strong colour and a clear, pervading light. She always searched for ways in which her own experience of an area and its essential nature could be combined in her painting. Angus was born in Hastings. In 1927 she began studies at the Canterbury College School of Art until 1933. She then worked as an illustrator for the Christchurch Press Junior. By 1955 she had settled in Wellington and in 1958 was awarded an Association of New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship, which allowed her to travel to England and Europe. There she studied old masters as well as contemporary art. She died in Wellington.
(Label date unknown)
Related reading: In the Vast Emptiness
film
Rita Angus - Mountains, Cass
Jill Trevelyan, the biographer of Rita Angus, considers the painting Mountains, Cass by Rita Angus.
Notes
Mountains, Cass by Rita Angus
This article first appeared as 'The wonders of waterolours' in The Press on 11 August 2015.
Notes
Lawrence Baigent and Robert Erwin
While much has been written about the wrecked buildings in Christchurch's cbd and the loss of some of the city's iconic heritage buildings, demolition work also continues in the suburbs, often on a more personal scale.
Notes
Canterbury Landscape by Colin McCahon
In 2014 we purchased an important landscape work by Colin McCahon. Curator Peter Vangioni speaks about this new addition to Christchurch Art Gallery’s collection.
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100 years of the Cass field station
Last weekend the University of Canterbury Biology Department celebrated the 100th anniversary of the field station at Cass with a symposium on Cass followed up with a field trip to the station.
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Wainui - to the west of the long harbour
"I like Wainui, quaint, charming, rather like a Pieter Bruegel subject with the haymaking in progress." Rita Angus to Douglas Lilburn, 1943
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CASS
This week 77 years ago Rita Angus visited Cass on a sketching holiday with Louise Henderson and Julia Scarvell that resulted in several paintings including the Christchurch Art Gallery's Cass.
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CASS
André Hemer's exhibition CASS is well worth a visit if you are near the Christchurch Art Gallery's space above NG on Madras street.
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Another nor’wester descends on Canterbury
Some people fear them, others revel in the unforgiving dry heat – love them or hate them the legendary Canterbury nor'wester is one of the defining features of this region in the summer months and there is a real doozy blowing outside at the moment.
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Heart in the high country: Austen Deans (1915 - 2011)
For Austen Deans, OBE, painting was an expression of his love of the outdoors and, in particular, the Canterbury high country.
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Sutton high-fives McCahon
Nothing made it into a W.A. Sutton painting by accident, and the white line that rises diagonally through the sky in Plantation Series II is no exception.
Article
Exquisite Treasure Revealed
Canterbury Museum holds two albums compiled by Diamond Harbour artist Margaret Stoddart. The older of the two, containing images featured in this Bulletin, and itself currently exhibited in the Gallery, covers the period 1886–96. The album is handsomely bound in maroon, and stamped M.O.S. in gold. It contains a sort of travelogue by way of black and white photographs set amongst decorative painting, mostly of native flora, with some locality and date information.