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Flight 1968-69	Trees and tombstones 1969	Tombstones with letter 1969

Tombstones from the Bolton Street cemetery 1969	Angel 1969	Juliet Peter sketching 1968-69

Headstones, Liberty 1969	Bolton Street cemetery sketchbook 1968-69	Bolton Street cemetery sketchbook 1968-69

Flight

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Flight 1968-69
oil on hardboard, 602 x 607 mm
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Purchased 1970 from Wellington City Council Picture Purchase Fund
This artwork is featured in Te Papa's Collections Online

Rita Angus was especially drawn to one particular tombstone in the Bolton Street cemetery. It had a carving of a dove – the universal symbol of peace.

This dove appears in Flight, with other images of the Wellington landscape – the boats at Island Bay, the hills of Makara, and the tombstones from the cemetery.

Angus made the preliminary drawing for this picture during a picnic at Makara, while she was preoccupied with the cemetery. As she explained to friends, ‘I took the headstones to the picnic too.’

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