Rhona Haszard

Rhona Haszard (1901 – 1931) was a New Zealand artist.

She was born in Thames, New Zealand, one of five children of a devoted mother, Alice, and a father who worked for the Lands and Survey Department, becoming a Commissioner of Crown Lands in 1910.

As a result of her father's job the family moved often and lived in Auckland, Christchurch, Hokitika and Invercargill.

At the age of 18, she enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art (now the School of Fine Arts, Canterbury University), joining a set of women artists including Ngaio Marsh, Evelyn Page (nee Polson), Rata Lovell-Smith (nee Bird) and Olivia Spencer Bower. She was taught amongst others by Archibald Nicoll, the newly appointed head of the school.

Haszard was very bohemian. She dressed eccentrically, spoke positively of de facto relationships and advocated vegetarianism and unprocessed food. [1]

In 1922 she married Ronald McKenzie a teacher and fellow student. However in 1925 she abandoned this apparently happy marriage to run off with an ex-British Army officer Leslie Greener. After being confronted with the disapproval of society the couple escaped to France in 1926. They settled in Paris and studied briefly at the Academie Julian. Haszard continued to paint landscapes and exhibited in Paris at the Paris Salon in 1927, London with the Royal Society of Women Artists and Cairo as well as sending work back to be exhibited in New Zealand.

The couple completed numerous painting trips to the Channel Islands, Cyprus and Greece. In 1927 Greener was employed by Victoria College, Alexandria, Egypt to teach art. In 1928 Haszard had a serious accident that left her with a back injury and she returned to London to seek medical treatment in 1929 and 1930. However she remained committed to painting and to the bohemian art and theatre circles. She returned to Alexandria in 1930.

Her life was tragically cut short when she fell off a four-storey tower at Victoria College, Alexandria in 1931 the night after her last exhibition opened. She was 30.

List of Works

* [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colProProductionMakers%3a%22Haszard%2c+Rhona%22+colCollectionGroup%3aCH Works from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]

References

* [http://www.nzartmonthly.co.nz/drayton_002.html Rhona Haszard (1909-1931): An Experimental Expatriate]

Persondata
NAME = Haszard, Rhona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = painter
DATE OF BIRTH = 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH = Thames, New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH = 1931
PLACE OF DEATH = Alexandria, Egypt