Guest Blog by Ben Curnow 2025-11-07
Betty Curnow (1911–2005) was a close friend of artist Rita Angus (1908–1970). Their friendship spanned more than thirty years, from 1936 to 1970. Betty kept hundreds of pages of handwritten notes about Angus, drawn from her diaries, recording the people she met, events she attended, and her reflections on Angus’s life and work. Among these are detailed insights into Portrait of Betty Curnow (1942), now held by the Auckland Art Gallery.
It is a real pleasure to share this guest blog by Ben Curnow, a descendant of Elizabeth Jamaux “Betty” Curnow (née Le Cren), one of South Canterbury’s remarkable artistic daughters. Born in Timaru in 1911 and descended from pioneer Henry Le Cren, Betty’s story reaches from the early days of our town to the heart of New Zealand’s modern art movement. She grew up in a home alive with creativity, guided by her mother Daisy Le Cren, whose encouragement helped shape a young Colin McCahon. Betty carried that same spirit forward, first as a painter and later as one of the country’s leading printmakers, her work reflecting the light and rhythm of the South Canterbury landscape.
A heartfelt thank you to Ben Curnow for sharing his family’s story and for shining new light on a Timaru artist whose influence reached far beyond our district. His words help reconnect Betty Curnow to the place where her journey began and to all of us who continue to celebrate the creativity that grows from this landscape.
Read on to discover Betty’s story through Ben’s eyes.
Betty wasn’t just from Timaru (many other artists can claim that distinction) but rather, it can be said that Timaru was in her blood. Even the famous portrait of her painted by Rita Angus in the 1940s contains clues to her heritage: she sits in her grandmother’s chair; behind her on the wall is a small oval-framed photograph of her father, Charles Le Cren as a young man, which was by William Ferrier at his studio in the Royal Arcade; above the bookshelf, a small watercolour landscape of the semi-arid South Canterbury hill country that Angus had given to Betty as in recognition of her deep attachment to the district. All this, in a picture that came to be regarded as iconic of New Zealand art of the period.
Betty made this painting of the house she grew up in at 86 Grey Road, Timaru in 1933. I thought the address was familiar, and then I realised I have been on site to measure the replacement house on this section for carpet and curtains when I had a stint working for an interior design and home improvement company. When you drive down towards Nelson Terrace there are a few houses that look very similar. Perhaps all by the same architect or developer at the time.
The family name of Le Cren was indeed synonymous with the early years of Timaru. Betty’s grandfather, Frederic Le Cren (of Elmsdale), along with his brother Henry, had been among the most instrumental figures who shaped the establishment of the fledgling city and played a prominent part in civic life, going all the way back to the 1850s and 1860s. The Le Crens were well known throughout the surrounding district and, at the time when Betty was growing up, must have seemed almost like local aristocracy.
Her early years revolved around the family home at 86 Grey Road, known as ‘Clandon’, a one-and-a-half storey house “two minutes from the Bay”. From the window of her upstairs bedroom window she could see Mount Cook (Aoraki) to one side and the ocean’s horizon to the other. The family was a notably artistic one, particularly in the case of her her mother, Daisy Le Cren, who “painted almost every day of her life”. She attended Waimataitai School, Sacred Heart and Craighead Diocesan School. Although art was not part of the school curriculum in those days, from 1927 to 1929 she has tuition from Albert J. Rae, who visited Craighead once a week and introduced students to a wide range of techniques and ideas that stimulated her interest in modern art.
Section of the 1911 map, showing Wellington Street. Borough of Timaru, South Canterbury. NZ Heritage Maps Platform, accessed 19/09/2025, https://maps.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/336
It was in Timaru, in April 1936, that Betty Le Cren met the young poet Allen Curnow, at the annual St Saviour's fundraising fête for Anglican orphanages. Within four months they were married, and the rest is history. The groom-to-be had been sent to Timaru to cover for three weeks as a reporter for The Press, and was himself Timaruvian by birth; his father, Tremayne M. Curnow had been the Curate at St Mary’s between 1907 and 1912, and he returned to the same church in 1936 to officiate at the wedding.
Following her marriage she went to the School of Art in Christchurch, studying under Archibald Nicholl, Ratae Lovell-Smith, and Francis Shurrock for varying periods in the late 1930s. In the stimulating and culturally charged atmosphere of the 1930s and 1940s, Betty’s friends included Rita Angus, Doris Lusk, Colin McCahon, Molly Macalister, Louise Henderson, Evelyn Page, Douglas MacDiarmid, Leo Bensemann, Bill Sutton, Olivia Spencer-Bower, and Ngaio Marsh among others. She was equally connected to the literary world of Caxton Press and the artists of The Group, who met at The Coffee Pot, in New Regent Street, to discuss matters like the Christchurch City Council’s rejection of Frances Hodgkins’ paintings, one of which was bought as a result of their efforts. Betty’s work in the 1940s and early 1950s focused mainly on oil painting, but she also continued pursue her interest in printmaking.
Artworks by Betty Curnow held in the Aigantighe Art Gallery Collection. These images are under copyright, please do not reproduce without permission.
Betty Curnow (New Zealand, 1911–2005). New Old Sydney. Date unknown. Monoprint on paper. Sheet: 630 × 435 mm; plate: 595 × 386 mm. Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru. Accession no. 1993.12.
Betty Curnow (New Zealand, 1911–2005). Sheep Station I, Mackenzie Country. 1979. Woodcut on paper. Sheet: 470 × 320 mm; plate: 170 × 220 mm. Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru. Accession no. 1999.13.
Betty Curnow (New Zealand, 1911–2005). They Hold Him, Mt Cook. 1968. PVA drawing block on paper. Sheet: 635 × 427 mm; image: 555 × 367 mm. Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru. Accession no. 1999.12.
In 1951 Betty shifted with her young family to Auckland, which at the time seemed somewhat lacking on the level of cultural activity. To keep up her art practice she attended evening classes in the early 1950s, first those taught by Colin McCahon, and then printmaking workshops with Kees Hos, who taught new block-making methods and the use of the mangle press. “This”, said Betty, “threw the doors of printmaking wide open to me”. In 1957, she held her first solo exhibition in this medium at Wellington’s Centre Gallery. On seeing this work, Hos advised her to return to printing seriously. Subsequently developing her own methods and experimental approach, Betty Curnow was widely regarded as a trailblazer of new developments in printmaking in this country.
She visited Timaru and exhibited her work here on numerous occasions, in the course of her long and illustrious career, especially in the 1960s and 1970s when her exhibiting career was at its peak. The South Canterbury landscape appeared frequently in her later work, and in her solo exhibition ‘My Country - South Canterbury Hills’ at Auckland’s New Vision gall
Who would have through that a supermarket apron could become part of New Zealands modernist painting history. featured in the iconic Rita Angus portrait of a pregnant Betty Curnow, the textile is now safely cared for in the Auckland Art Gallery archives. I was curious, why this piece of fabric was such a big deal, so here is a closer look into a textile that is part of New Zealands art history.
Two pieces of printed Britway cotton fabric with a ‘Mexicana’ design of cacti and sombreros, originally from a blouse worn by Betty Curnow in Rita Angus’s 1942 portrait. Source: E. H. McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Betty Curnow Mexicana Fabric. Creator: Betty Curnow. Date range: 1941–2001. Accession no. RC2024/11. Open Access by Appointment. Copyright expired. .aucklandartgallery.com/38929
Betty Curnow (née Le Cren) was born in Geraldine, Timaru District, 31 October 1911. Her full name was Elizabeth Jaumaud Le Cren. She was part of a well-known early European Timaru family, the Le Crens, whose roots go back to Henry Le Cren, one of Timaru’s founding settlers and merchants int he late 1850s, and business partner of Captain Henry Cain. Betty was the daughter of Daisy Le Cren (née Roberts 1881–1951). Daisy was born in Timaru, married Charle Le Cren, painted watercolours and has some very interesting links with fellow Timaruv-vian and famous modern New Zealand artist, Colin McCahon. Daisy died in Auckland. Betty grew up in Timaru before moving to Christchurch for her education and early adult life. In the 1980s, she again turned to painting to express her profound and life-long connections to South Canterbury.
Shand House at Craighead School was where Henry Le Cren lived until his death. Featured in booklet issued by authority of the municipality of Timaru on the occasion of the centennial of the Dominion of New Zealand, 1940.. Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 06/10/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/780
Betty Curnow (New Zealand, 1911–2005). Sheep Station I, Mackenzie Country. 1979. Woodcut on paper. Sheet: 470 × 320 mm; plate: 170 × 220 mm. Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru. Accession no. 1999.13. These images are under copyright, please do not reproduce without permission.
Betty Curnow (New Zealand, 1911–2005). They Hold Him, Mt Cook. 1968. PVA drawing block on paper. Sheet: 635 × 427 mm; image: 555 × 367 mm. Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru. Accession no. 1999.12. These images are under copyright, please do not reproduce without permission.
Betty Curnow (New Zealand, 1911–2005). New Old Sydney. Date unknown. Monoprint on paper. Sheet: 630 × 435 mm; plate: 595 × 386 mm. Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru. Accession no. 1993.12. These images are under copyright, please do not reproduce without permission.
Roselyn Fauths reflections from Ben's Blog and Betty's story.
Reading Ben’s words about his grandmother, Betty Curnow, reminded me how deeply art and place are connected. He brings her to life not only as an artist, but as a daughter of Timaru — someone whose story began in the same light, wind and hills that still shape us today.
Through Ben’s eyes, we see how one family’s story reflects the evolution of a community and its culture. From Henry Le Cren, one of Timaru’s earliest European settlers, to Daisy Le Cren quietly encouraging young artists like Colin McCahon, and on to Betty’s own achievements as a painter and printmaker, their story feels woven through the growth of this district. It reminds me how creativity, belonging and place have always gone hand in hand here.
I remember first learning about Betty’s portrait in art history class at Timaru Girls’ High. Seeing Rita Angus’s style for the first time changed how I looked at the world around me. I started noticing the colour of the Canterbury light, the shapes of the hills, and how artists used these familiar landscapes to tell bigger stories. That class planted the seed for my love of regional art — art that speaks of who we are, where we stand, and how the land itself finds its way into our imagination. The works left behind by Betty and her contemporaries feel like quiet signposts, showing how they saw and understood their world at the time.
It is sad that Betty’s family home is long gone, but a wander through the neighbourhood still reveals houses of that same era and style. They give us a sense of the architecture of her time, and of the homes people built for themselves in this district — sturdy, personal, and full of stories.
I also love that one of Betty’s artworks, made using a simple piece of supermarket apron, was later acquired by the Auckland Art Gallery. There is something quietly profound in that — a reminder that what we make, and what we choose to keep, can transform the ordinary into something lasting. It makes me think about the stories, art and everyday objects we protect for future generations, and how they will one day use them to reflect on where we have come from.
Ben’s blog has reminded me that local history is never still. It lives on through those who remember, reinterpret and share it. By reconnecting Betty Curnow to Timaru’s story, Ben hasn’t just honoured his own family — he has helped all of us see our place in the wider story of New Zealand art, and the beauty that begins right here at home.
86 Grey Road - httpspropertysearch.canterburymaps.govt.nzpropertypropertyPoint=1460494.0195919354,5082755.269856099
Sadly the author of this blog and descendant of Better - Ben Curnow, passed away from a heart attack. He sent this blog to me to publish on 2025-11-07. the following day he had a heart attack and after days in ICU in Christchurch he passed away. My condolences to Bens wife Nadezda Curnow, Bens family and friends. Ben and I met a party and then decided to meet for coffee. It was a fascinating conversation where he told me he had moved back to Timaru to learn more about his family, and had been researching their life in South Canterbury. Ben shared fascinating stories, like how the famous New Zealand artist, Rita Angus was Ben's fathers nanny! And about a famous table cloth, where everyone who visited for dinner used to sign their name into a table cloth and then Betty would embroider their names permanently into the cloth. I was so looking forward to seeing it, and learning more about Ben's research and insight into his family. We decided to team up and make a submission to the Timaru District Council to nominate Betty Curnow for the Hall of Fame, which we did. And following that submission Ben prepared this blog for me to publish on his behalf. He sent me an emai lon the Saturday, I published it that evening, and he said he would send through paintings by Betty to include the following day. However sadly he wasn't able to send the photos.
This blog could be one of the final pieces of writing by Ben, and I feel a responsibility to do right by him and to put this blog out the best way I can. I reached out to Craighead School and their archivist Wayne Pahl and his daughter Bridget who is an artist and a art teacher met me at the school to show me works by Betty that are in the schools collection.
Bridget believes that the art was probably made to demonstrate the methods of making, rather than collecting the art as an art investment. Thanks to Betty, the art now has inspired generations of artists to create their own artistic interpretations of the world. Here are some of the artworks in the collection with the schools permission.
Betty Curnow. Wellington. 1943. Craighead Art Collection. Produced with permission from the school and the artists estate. Please do not reproduce without copyright permission.
Betty Curnow. Gum Leaves. 1943. Craighead Art Collection. Produced with permission from the school and the artists estate. Please do not reproduce without copyright permission.
Betty Curnow. Pussy Grass (4). 1943. Craighead Art Collection. Produced with permission from the school and the artists estate. Please do not reproduce without copyright permission.
Detail: Betty Curnow. Pussy Grass (4). 1943. Craighead Art Collection. Produced with permission from the school and the artists estate. Please do not reproduce without copyright permission.
Betty Curnow. 1943. Craighead Art Collection. Produced with permission from the school and the artists estate. Please do not reproduce without copyright permission.
The following is by Roselyn Faith
Sides Quest: The LeCren Connection
When reading about Betty Curnow, it is easy to begin in the 1940s, with Rita Angus’s famous portrait and the vibrant circle of modern artists gathering around Christchurch cafés and studios. But Betty’s story begins much earlier, and much closer to the sea.
To understand that portrait properly, we have to walk down to the shoreline of nineteenth century Timaru.
In the 1850s the town was little more than a rough landing place on an exposed coast. Ships could not come safely into harbour, so cargo and passengers had to be brought ashore in small surfboats through heavy breakers. It was dangerous work. Everything depended on timing, skill, and courage.
One of the men who helped make this landing place work was Henry Le Cren, Betty Curnow’s ancestor.
Le Cren arrived in Canterbury in 1849 with his cousin James FitzGerald. A merchant by trade, he soon recognised the potential of the remote landing place at Timaru. Alongside his business partner John Longden he began supplying goods to settlers in the district. By the late 1850s he had established a store at the foot of the cliff where Strathallan Street now meets the sea.
Running that store required someone capable and determined. Le Cren turned to Captain Henry Cain, sending him south to manage the operation. Together they organised what became Timaru’s early landing service. Surfboats carried cargo, livestock and passengers between ships and shore, while sheds and stores grew along the beach below the cliffs.
This rough maritime enterprise helped transform a lonely landing place into a working town.
Over time Le Cren prospered. His commercial success allowed him to invest in land, build estates, and support civic life. By the late nineteenth century he was one of South Canterbury’s most influential settlers. His home, later renamed Craighead, would eventually become the site of Craighead Diocesan School.
And through the generations that followed, his family became woven into the cultural life of the district.
By the early twentieth century the world had changed dramatically. The surfboats had vanished, replaced by harbour works and railways. Yet the Le Cren family name remained part of Timaru’s fabric.
Into that legacy, in 1911, Elizabeth Jaumaud “Betty” Le Cren was born.
She grew up in a house overlooking the bay, able to see both Aoraki/Mount Cook and the Pacific Ocean from her bedroom window. Her mother Daisy painted almost every day, filling the home with colour and creativity. It was a very different kind of work from the surfboats and stores of her ancestor’s time, yet it grew from the same place.
The Le Cren story had moved from commerce and shipping into culture and art.
Betty carried that legacy forward in her own way. She became part of the circle of artists who helped shape modern New Zealand art, working alongside figures such as Rita Angus, Colin McCahon, and Doris Lusk. Her prints and paintings captured the distinctive light and landforms of South Canterbury, the very landscape her family had helped settle generations earlier.
Seen this way, Rita Angus’s famous portrait holds a deeper layer of meaning.
The young woman seated in her grandmother’s chair is not only an artist. She is also a descendant of one of the men who helped build the town behind her.
From the surfboats of the 1850s to the studios of twentieth century artists, the thread runs quietly through Timaru’s history.
And in Betty Curnow’s life, that thread ties the town’s earliest beginnings to the flowering of modern New Zealand art.
Here you can see the passenger landing service sheds with signal station on the cliff above at Timaru - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1691-114 the landing service was established by Henry Le Cren and Captain Henry Cain at the foot of what is now Strathallan Street, Timaru.
Timaru 1864. This was first buildings on the Turnbull site on Strathallan Street where Henry Le Cren with Captain Henry Cain established a landing service and a store. The two to the right was Cains original landing services.
Side Quest: The Le Cren Legacy and the Birth of Shand House
When you walk through the grounds of Craighead Diocesan School today, Shand House stands calmly beside Kitchener Square, its brick walls and bracketed eaves giving it the quiet dignity of another era. Students pass it every day on their way to class. Few realise that the house connects several chapters of Timaru’s history at once. And like many Timaru stories, it leads back to the Le Cren family.
The house was originally built around 1875 by Henry John Sealy, a surveyor who had arrived in New Zealand in 1859 with his brother Edward. The Sealys helped map and shape the young district during the decades when the town was still finding its form. Their house reflected the confidence of that period. Designed by local engineer and architect Thomas Roberts, it was built in the Italianate villa style, popular in prosperous colonial towns of the late nineteenth century. With its bay windows, decorative quoins, and bracketed eaves, the house would have stood proudly in open countryside on the edge of town.
At the time, this area was not the leafy suburb we see today. It was rural land overlooking Timaru, where large homes sat within extensive gardens and paddocks.
In 1881 the property was purchased by Henry Le Cren, one of the most influential figures in early South Canterbury. By then Le Cren had already helped establish Timaru’s early commercial life through his merchant business and the landing service he operated with Captain Henry Cain at the foot of Strathallan Street. As the town grew, so did his interests in land and property.
Le Cren renamed the estate “Craighead.” The name came from Scotland, echoing a castle belonging to his brother in law, and it reflected the Victorian habit of anchoring colonial homes in the memory of older European landscapes.
Under Le Cren’s ownership the property became a substantial estate. Additions were made to the house in 1888 by the architectural partnership of Meason and Marchant, expanding the residence and reinforcing its status as one of the prominent homes in the district. The grounds stretched across what was then more than forty acres, complete with gardens and a gardener’s lodge.
From this house Le Cren lived out the final years of his life. When he died in 1895, Craighead stood as a symbol of the prosperity achieved by one of Timaru’s founding settlers.
In 1910 the Craighead estate was subdivided, opening a new chapter in the growth of the town. Streets such as Chalmers Street, Craighead Street, Wrights Avenue, and Kitchener Square all emerged from that subdivision, transforming former farmland into a developing residential neighbourhood.
Soon after, the old house itself took on an entirely new role, and in 1911 four sisters, Anna, Eleanor, Fanny, and Elizabeth Shand, daughters of University of Otago professor John Shand, opened Craighead Girls’ School in the former Le Cren residence. What had once been a private colonial estate became a place of learning for young women.
A house built in the era of surveyors and merchants became the heart of a school dedicated to education and opportunity. Generations of girls would pass through its rooms, shaping futures far beyond the walls of the old villa.
Today the building is known as Shand House, honouring the sisters who gave it its educational purpose. Yet its earlier layers remain embedded in the walls.
It carries the memory of Henry Sealy, who first built it.
It reflects the ambition and success of Henry Le Cren, who turned it into the Craighead estate.
And it honours the Shand sisters, whose vision transformed it into a place of learning.
For students walking past today, it is simply part of the school grounds.
But look a little closer and Shand House quietly reveals how Timaru’s history unfolds through generations, each leaving their mark on the same piece of land.
From surveyor’s residence, to merchant’s estate, to girls’ school.
And through it all, the legacy of the Le Cren family remains part of the story.
Elmsdale School was a private boarding school for special needs children situated on Selwyn Street, Timaru, in the former home of Frederic Le Cren. The school was established in 1917 by George Benstead.
Photograph taken at Selwyn Motor Camp in 1969 on a record day. Elmsdale is at the top left.
Side Quest: Elmsdale and the Le Cren Family
Just a short distance from Craighead and the old Le Cren estates was another house that used to be connected to the Le Crens. Its name was Elmsdale.
Today the site is less obvious than Craighead. The building is long gone, and now home to Timaru top 10 Holiday Park. For many years Elmsdale stood as one of the significant homes connected with the Le Cren family.
The property was associated with Frederic Le Cren, brother of Henry Le Cren and another prominent figure in the district’s early development. Like his brother, Frederic was deeply involved in the growth of South Canterbury during the nineteenth century. The Le Crens were merchants, landowners, and civic participants. Their names appear frequently in the early records of the town, connected with commerce, farming, and the shaping of local institutions.
Elmsdale reflected the prosperity and stability the family achieved during those formative decades.
By the early twentieth century, however, the role of the property had begun to change, reflecting the needs of a growing community. In 1917 the house became the site of Elmsdale School, a private boarding school established by George Benstead.
The school provided education and care for children with special needs, something that was rarely addressed formally in early twentieth century New Zealand. At a time when few such institutions existed, Elmsdale became an important place of learning and support for children who might otherwise have had very limited opportunities.
Many of the large nineteenth century estates built by early settlers gradually shifted into new roles as the town expanded. Homes became schools, hospitals, boarding houses, or community institutions. In this way the physical legacy of the pioneer generation continued to serve the district long after the original families had moved on.
A house built during the era of merchant settlers became, in the next generation, a place of care and education. Later photographs show the property during its time near the Selwyn Motor Camp, a reminder of how the surrounding area continued to change as the twentieth century unfolded.
Today, like many historic homes, Elmsdale survives only in photographs, memories, and local records.
From the surfboats of the landing service, to the Craighead estate that became a girls’ school, and then to Elmsdale’s role as a special needs boarding school, the legacy of the Le Crens can be traced through the institutions that helped shape the community. These buildings may have changed their purpose over time, but each carried forward the same quiet thread of local history.
And sometimes, if we follow that thread carefully enough, we discover that the places we pass every day were once homes, schools, and stories all at once.