LOVELL-SMITH, COLIN (1894-1960)

“River Landscape, Canterbury, NZ” (c.1930) 
oil on canvas laid on board
42 x 35cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Lovell-Smith was a pioneering, prolific, & influential New Zealand Modernist and ANZAC veteran. He won a scholarship from Riccarton School to the Canterbury College School of Art, where he was a full-time student in commercial art and general subjects in 1908–9. He then joined the family firm, Smith and Anthony, working as a commercial artist and attending part-time classes at the school. He enlisted at the end of 1914, and served at Gallipoli with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Alongside his wife, Rata Lovell-Smith (image 3), he developed an influential style of representation of the New Zealand landscape. From the mid 1920s Rata and Colin embarked on regular painting expeditions into the back country. They had inherited a vigorous landscape tradition in Canterbury, which combined with the arrival of post-impressionist influences to stimulate their new approach to the representation of their surroundings. Their work was praised for its modern, poster-like qualities and was well-suited to the portrayal of 'New Zealand scenery with its sharp contrasts and absence of fine tonal nuances'. They were both teachers at the Canterbury College School of Art and he was director from 1947-1960. Both Rata and Colin Lovell-Smith were working members of the Canterbury Society of Arts and exhibited regularly at the main art societies. Colin was president on the Council of the Canterbury Society of Arts and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. They were both represented at the National Centennial Exhibition of New Zealand Art in 1940.