11. Ruth D Browne
Abstract, c.1958
Oil on board
80 x 100 cm
Signed
est. $2,500 - 3,500
Fetched $2,400
Relative Size: Abstract, c.1958
Relative size

Provenance: Artist's Estate Collection

Ruth Browne is the matriarch of a rich artistic lineage. Her son is Wellington-based artist Michael Browne, and her grandson is Auckland artist Matthew. Ruth Browne's love of painting and drawing became well established in her childhood when, on the family farm in North Canterbury, she saw a woman sitting on a hill near their house, 'doing something', which, upon investigation, turned out to be painting. Ruth decided this too would be her vocation. Ruth attended Canterbury College of Art, winning two major prizes along with the CCSA Sketch Club's self-portrait competition in which Rita Angus was also a nalist. During the 1920s and 1930s, a period in which New Zealand women artists flourished, Ruth Browne aligned herself with Olivia Spencer Bower and Mary Hogg. She travelled to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, completing her certi cate in one year rather than the usual three. From there Ruth made extended painting trips through the English countryside and to Italy. After her return to New Zealand in 1933 she continued to explore landscape painting but, by the early 1960's, had begun to develop a level of abstraction that culminated in her nal, poured abstract works. She was one of few women artists of her time able to support herself nancially through painting sales and to pursue her career with professional purpose.

Ruth was artistically progressive and brave. Her early abstractions were playful then quickly moved to more atmospheric work employing a limited palette. Possibly in uenced by Jackson Pollock's paintings, Ruth broke free from old restraints and began to use paint with more abandon. There is a sense of intuitive spontaneity and daring quickness, still drawing on organic form and a closeness to nature that always inspired her to paint. Ruth Browne is represented in private and public collections in New Zealand including Te Papa Tongarewa

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