Deutscher and Hackett

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Rita Angus
Self-portrait, c.1937
oil on canvas on board
49.0 x 40.0 cm
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand
© The Estate of Rita Angus

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Evelyn Page
Portrait of Valmai Moffett, 1933
oil on canvas
95.5 x 67.0 cm
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand

Rita Angus painted this portrait of a young boy on the eve of the Second World War. Then in her early thirties, she had recently completed paintings such as Cass, 1936; Self-portrait, 1936 – 37; and Leo Bensemann, 1938, which are now celebrated in the art history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Living in Christchurch, then the country’s leading art centre, she was at the height of her powers and much admired by her artist contemporaries.

On a personal level, however, this was a challenging time for Angus. In March 1939, she quit her flat, unable to pay the rent, and for most of the year she stayed with friends, helping with childcare and household duties in return for board. As a committed pacifist she was deeply troubled by the escalating threat of war, but she was also beset by misfortune, including the death of a sister and the end of a long-term relationship. It was during this unsettled period that she painted Portrait of O’Donnell Moffett, c.1939.

The portrait was commissioned by the subject’s mother – Angus’ friend, the cellist Valmai Moffett (née Livingstone). The two women, born a year apart, had known each other since the early 1930s and had much in common; both had married young and soon separated, and both were gifted artists, independent, unconventional and dedicated to their work. They were part of the same social circle in Christchurch, a group of innovative artists, musicians, writers and intellectuals who were linked through friendship, love affairs and marriage. Valmai attended parties at Rita’s studio in Cambridge Terrace, a hub for the local artworld, and she was painted and drawn by mutual artist friends. Today, Evelyn Page’s Portrait of Valmai Moffett, 1933 is one of the treasures of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection.

According to family history, Valmai commissioned Rita to make a pencil portrait of her son and was surprised to be presented with a more substantial work – an oil painting. Angus evidently wanted to do her best for her friend. She knew how much Valmai missed her ten-year-old son, who was based in Dunedin with his father at the time. Angus later referred to the portrait in a letter to a mutual friend, the composer Douglas Lilburn. ‘When I painted O’Donnell years ago as a commission, I asked the lowest amount I could, though in economic straits myself…’¹ Angus, childless herself, was greatly drawn to children and took pleasure in depicting them all her life. Here, she presents us with an alert, wide-eyed boy, scrubbed and groomed for his portrait, his hair freshly combed and his jersey neatly buttoned. His irrepressible cowlick and unruly white collar contribute to the impression of barely contained vitality.

The portrait has affinities with another arresting image of a child – Head of a Māori Boy, c.1938, in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Both works show the crisp drawing, sharply delineated form and brilliant light that are typical of Angus’ art, but the Moffett oil, an intimate and affectionate portrait, is more naturalistic. Its freshness and luminosity remind us that Angus had spent much of the past two years painting pristine watercolours of the Central Otago landscape.

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Rita Angus

Head of a Māori Boy, c.1938

oil on canvas on plywood

42.0 x 31.0 cm

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
New Zealand

© The Estate of Rita Angus

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Rita Angus

Leo Bensemann, 1938

oil on canvas

30.0 x 35.5 cm

Museum of New Zealand
Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

© The Estate of Rita Angus

Portrait of O’Donnell Moffett is a fine example of Angus’ work, and a testament to the friendship between two remarkable women, key figures in the lively Christchurch art world of the 1930s. Like most of Angus’ paintings it was never exhibited in her lifetime and has only come to public notice in recent years through exhibitions at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Angus herself thought highly of it, telling Douglas Lilburn in 1946, ‘I’m glad I’ve painted this portrait for it’s good.’²

1. ‘Letter from Rita Angus to Douglas Lilburn’, 16 August 1946, Douglas Lilburn papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, MS-P-7623-61.
2. ibid.
 
JILL TREVELYAN