Click on the thumbnails below to find out more.

Portrait of Betty Curnow  1942	Wystan Curnow  1942	Wystan Curnow  1941
Mother and child (Jean and Anton Jones)  1942	Joyce Milligan  1941	Timmy  1952
Mother and child  1945	Portrait of Douglas Angus  1940	Quentin Angus  1942-44
Portrait of Fred Jones  circa 1940	Self-portrait  circa 1944	Self-portrait at Clifton  circa 1945
Self-portrait (grisaille)  1941	Self-portrait (nude, seated)  circa 1942	Study for carving torso (nude self portrait)  circa 1942
Grisaille nude self-portrait (standing)  1942	Self-portrait (with moth and caterpillar)  1943	Self-portrait (with leaves)  1945
Self-portrait  1947

Portrait of Betty Curnow

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Rita Angus stayed with her Christchurch friends Betty and Allen Curnow several times during the late 1930s and the 1940s. She gave them this portrait to thank them for their hospitality.

Angus and Betty Curnow planned the portrait together. They selected clothing and objects that would best symbolise the threads of Curnow’s life as a daughter, wife, and mother. 

Curnow sits in her grandfather’s chair, with a portrait of her father on the wall. Her son Wystan is indicated by his blue pants, which Curnow holds, and the bookcase represents her husband’s career as a poet.