item details
NameCleopatra
ProductionRita Angus; artist; 1938; Christchurch
Classificationpaintings
Materialsoil paint, canvas
Materials Summaryoil on canvas
DimensionsImage: 376mm (width), 464mm (height)
Registration Number1998-0028-2
Credit linePurchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds
Overview
Radiant in viridian green, Rita Angus paints herself as a modern Cleopatra. Angus was a committed feminist, and a pacifist. She saw the Egyptian queen Cleopatra as a figure of peace and power, and ancient Egypt as a culture that allowed women unusual freedom.
In 1938, Angus was sharing a studio in Christchurch with the painter Leo Bensemann. She describes the two artists dressing up as Cleopatra and Mark Anthony and painting each other’s portraits. At around this time, Bensemann painted a portrait of Angus which shows her as an otherworldly, fantastical queen in Portrait of Rita Angus.
Reference: Jill Trevelyan, Rita Angus: An artist’s life (Te Papa Press, 2nd edition, 2021), pp. 94-97.