Fine Art Auction Part I Saturday, 14 November 2026 / 11:00 am start

Olivia Spencer Bower - ‘Nuns, Assisi’, Watercolour

Lot Details

Olivia Spencer Bower (1905 - 1982) Nuns, Assisi Watercolour Signed bottom right, undated 340 x 240mm Provenance: Private collection, Christchurch Condition: Good, with some foxing. English-born, Canterbury-raised and educated by her artist mother Rosa Dixon to become a painter. Attended Canterbury School of Art for 8 years, then returned to England in 1929 to study at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art. For the next 2 years she travelled extensively throughout the British Isles and Europe, painting and sketching. Nuns at Assisi 1931 was painted at the Monastero di San Quirico. Spencer Bower has deftly captured the swishing, rhythmic action of 3 nuns tending their garden. Her chosen viewpoint is high, to deliberately accentuate the private, contained nature of the garden enclosed by the looming convent building and the steep hillside beyond. Figural, architectural and landscape elements are conveyed by an assured graphic handling of line with bold blocks of colour. Spencer Bower’s compositional strength, sound drawing and control of her chosen medium (watercolour) are all evident here, and were to be further explored and amplified in the luminous watercolour landscapes she painted on her return to the South Island, including, notably, landscapes featuring her friend Ngaio Marsh painting en plein air. By her own admission she painted for herself – she explored media and subjects throughout her career. Her traditional portraits in oils are highly proficient, as are her linocuts with their wondrous Biblical and Shakespearean themes. She was regarded by the 1970s as a cultural grandmother for young female artists and the emerging feminist art movement. A 1977 retrospective brought the rich diversity and accomplishment of her output to a wider audience. “She drew like a dream, quick, accurate, incisive, with ash dropping onto the drawing paper from the cheroot that always dangled from her lips.” Arguably New Zealand’s finest watercolourist, her work is today increasingly sought after. The Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award was established with funds left by the artist to provide emerging young New Zealand painters and sculptors the opportunity to work for 1 year, free to pursue their own direction without the worry of money.