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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

Portraits and self-portraits 1939-52

In 1941, Rita Angus had a brief love affair with the composer Douglas Lilburn. After losing their child in a miscarriage, she vowed that she would never remarry but remain a woman artist. She wrote to Lilburn, ‘I am quietly regaining my virginity because I wish to serve the arts.’

This was a highly productive period for Angus. Friends and family remained important to her, and she painted many fine portraits of them.

Angus also made numerous self-portraits, in which she scrutinised her features and identity with a new intensity. She exhibited few of these sensitive works, and all of them remained in her studio, unsold, at her death. For Angus, art was often a very private activity.