Central Otago


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Central Otago  1953-56/1969
oil on canvas, 524 x 636 mm
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Gift of Douglas Lilburn, 1972
This artwork is featured in Te Papa's Collections Online


In 1953, Douglas Lilburn gave Rita Angus some money for a sketching trip to Central Otago. This major work was the result - a landscape made up of different scenes that Angus sketched during her travels.

The painting includes a church at Naseby, a wind-tossed tree beside Lake Wakatipu, and the main street of Arrowtown. Every feature is painted in meticulous, loving detail, and the entire scene is bathed with golden light.

Angus referred to the sense of vastness in Central Otago when she described the painting to Lilburn: '[each] square inch covering tons of earth & space, sometimes taking several hours. Perhaps the painting may endure for centuries.'


> Back to Working from nature 1949-58


All artworks are reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Rita Angus.