Portrait of Rita Angus

When he painted this extraordinary portrait, Leo Bensemann had been living in Christchurch for several years, working as a commercial artist and learning to paint in oils. He had developed a keen interest in portraiture, depicting friends such as the poet and publisher Denis Glover and imaginary figures from German folklore and the Christian tradition.

In February 1938, Bensemann and his then-partner Lawrence Baigent had moved to a studio in Cambridge Terrace, next door to Rita Angus, with a shared kitchen. ‘Both our studios were thrown open,’ Baigent recalled. ‘Doors were never locked or shut.’1 The friendship between the three flourished, and later in the year Angus nominated Bensemann as a member of The Group, a progressive exhibiting society, beginning his long association with that organisation.

Bensemann and Angus shared many interests, including portraiture, modernism, Japanese woodcuts and medieval and ancient art. They began to draw and paint each other, often seated at either end of the dining table, in both naturalistic and highly imaginative pictures. Between 1937 and 1939 Bensemann depicted Angus in six works, including the Portrait of Rita Angus featured here, while she drew or painted him on five occasions. Their mutual fascination led to a curious episode, inspired in part by a book in Bensemann’s possession, The art of Ancient Egypt. As Angus recalled, ‘Leo and I painted one another’s portraits and we played at Mark Anthony [sic] and Cleopatra.’2

While Angus painted herself as Cleopatra, Bensemann depicted his friend as an intimidating, witch-like figure with mysterious powers. Her face has the impassive stare of Egyptian statuary and she wears a stark wig, which recalls the elaborate headdress of high-ranking women. Her voluminous black coat has military-style detailing, which echoes the jagged forms of the extraterrestrial, rocky pyramidal outcrops behind her. Bensemann brings a futuristic touch to the background, with its apocalyptic sky and iridescent colour. One of the artist’s most playful and theatrical works, with distinctly surrealist elements, Portrait of Rita Angus was found in his garage after his death in 1986, rolled up with other unframed oils. It was purchased for Te Papa’s collection in 1993.

Jill Trevelyan

1 Avenal McKinnon, ‘Leo Bensemann’, Art New Zealand, no. 30, Autumn 1984, p. 33.

2 Rita Angus, letter to Douglas Lilburn, 11 July [1942], MS-Papers-7623-051, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

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In the late 1930s, Rita Angus lived next door to fellow artist Leo Bensemann and his companion Lawrence Baigent, all pictured to your right. The three were good friends, sharing studio space, a love of literature, and passionate pacifist beliefs.

The two flats in Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch, became a hub of the local art world. They were also the place where Angus and Bensemann painted portraits of themselves, of each other, and of Baigent.

Bensemann’s daughter, Caroline Otto, wryly observed that ‘looking intensely serious, and using bright colours and striking backgrounds in the portraits, was all part of their humour’.