Self-portrait with fruit

In 1955, Rita Angus bought a house in the inner-city Wellington suburb of Thorndon. It was a quiet, private place, tucked away down a narrow path and set in an overgrown garden. A magnolia tree grew beside the front veranda. ‘There’s peace & seclusion here when I want it,’ Angus wrote to a friend.

Angus’s cottage and the changing seasons in the garden were recurring themes in her art during this period. She also painted the houses and streets of Thorndon, which were under threat from a new motorway. The fishing boats and rugged coastline of nearby Island Bay were other favourite subjects.