Click on the thumbnails below to find out more.
 |  |  |
| Self-portrait 1929 | Poplar trees 1929-30 | Blythe’s Buildings, Napier 1932 |
 |  |  |
| Ruins, Napier circa 1932 | Shakespeare Road, Napier 1932 | The Duvauchelles pub and hills 1933 |
 |  |  |
| Riverbed, Waiau 1932 | Mt Stewart, Waiau, North Canterbury circa 1931-32 | The Rape Paddock, Northern Hawke’s Bay circa 1935 |
 |  |  |
| Hill landscape, North Canterbury 1934 | The Aviatrix 1933 | Mountain biological station, Cass 1936 |
 |  |  |
| Mountain biological station, Cass 1936 | Mountains, Cass 1936 | Mountains, Cass 1936 |
 |
| Cass 1936 |
Cass
Listen to the audio track now:
Download as mp3 (0.70 MB)
Cass 1936
oil on canvas on board, 370 x 460 mm
Collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, purchased 1955
See this work on the Christchurch Art Gallery's website
Cass was a breakthrough work for Rita Angus. Crisp, bright, and rhythmic, it shows her distinctive style.
Angus planned Cass very carefully. The diagonal lines of the hills, for example, contrast with the verticals and horizontals of the buildings, power poles, and stacked wood in the foreground. Everything is sharp and clear, and the painting glows with colour.
For Angus, Cass had a deeply personal significance. It ‘expresses joy in living here,’ she wrote. Clearly a lot of people have since agreed. In 2006, Cass was voted New Zealand’s greatest painting in a television poll.
> Back to Early work 1929-36