NZ & International Fine Art - Evening Sale Wednesday, 4 May 2022 - 6:00 PM start
Rita Angus (1908 - 1970) - Evening View from Angus House (C1961-62)
Lot Details
Rita Angus (1908 - 1970) - Evening View from Angus House (C1961-62) Rita Angus (1908 - 1970) Evening View from Angus House (C1961-62) Charcoal and watercolour on paper signed 'Rita Angus' lower right 35 x 31 cm PROVENANCE purchased by Juliet Peter (6 gns) as a gift for her husband Roy Cowan's mother, Mrs E C Cowan inherited by Roy Cowan & Juliet Peter, Wellington 1968 Sale, Dunbar Sloane Ltd, Wellington, The Roy Cowan & Juliet Peter Collection, 29 & 30 September 1999 (lot 37) Sale, Dunbar Sloane Ltd, Wellington, the Noel & Margaret Dick Collection, 6 December 2019 (lot 21) EXHIBITED Wellington, NZAFA, Sculpture, Pottery and Graphic Art Exhibition, 1962 (cat no. 86.) Wellington, National Art Gallery, Rita Angus, December 1982 - March 1983 (cat no. 108); touring New Zealand from 1983-4 LITERATURE Rita Angus (Wellington 1982) p.182. cat no 108. as 'Evening' (1961-2) MEDIA 'Kaleidoscope - Rita Angus', Television, 1983 The wonderful magnolia tree in the garden of her cottage in Sydney Street West was always a source of great joy and inspiration to Rita Angus. There are several images of this tree in a variety of media and seasons in her oeuvre. This one combining her superb draughtsmanship with charcoal and pencil and her equally astonishing technique with watercolour. The shape of the tree in its winter starkness appealed to her strong linear aesthetic just as the darkness of night against the lights from the houses enhances its form and shape. Placing the trunk and branches in the immediate foreground of the image Angus has created an espaliered effect giving the composition a dramatic tension which makes for a most arresting image. A natural silhouette against the suburban night sky. This tension is also underlined by the naturalness of the tree which is in relief against the mathematical structures of the buildings in the background. Using a very restricted palette of blacks, greys and yellows Angus has achieved a masterly interplay of lights and darks capturing the warm glow of the artificial lights against the blackness and shadows of the tree, other vegetation and the night sky. Though dated earlier than the series of night sky works Angus produced during the mid sixties this work does show her fundamental interest in the effects of both natural and artifical lighting or their absence. A small masterpiece in which Angus quietly and deeply demonstrates the mastery of her craft and aspects of the concerns which fuelled her life and art. Tony Mackle
