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Featured Work

Works from the Ravenscar Trust Collection on display in the House Museum

RTC0009 L Bensemann Taylors Mistake 02

Bensemann's View

This work, a view of Whitewash Head, hangs in the Dining Room, in a group of landscapes depicting the coastal areas surrounding Scarborough Hill, the site of the original Ravenscar House.

It is a rare example of Leo Bensemann's (1912–1986) brief foray into watercolour between 1933 and 1936, and is one of only 10 known examples.

Bensemann was heavily influenced by Japanese woodcut artists. Even the signature is influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, positioned vertically in the upper left corner, although with a Fraktur font which references Bensemann’s own German ancestry.

Untitled (Taylors Mistake) c1933, Leo Bensemann (1912–1986)

To find out more about Leo Bensemann go to Te Ara The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography