Self-portrait at Clifton


Self-portrait at Clifton  circa 1945
watercolour, 393 x 313 mm
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, on loan from the Rita Angus Estate


Rita Angus began many self-portraits during the 1940s – an unsettled time both personally and politically. Sometimes, she left them unfinished.

Here, she has carefully painted her head and shoulders but left her body lightly sketched in – a transparent web of pencil lines. In works like this, she seems to play with the very idea of self-portraiture, as if she might suddenly fade from view.


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