A church and barn can be found on Matapiro Rd - is this rural scene the inspiration for an untitled Rita Angus painting being auctioned on Wednesday? Photos / Warren Buckland
A rural scene on Matapiro Rd could be the inspiration that led to Hawke's Bay artist Rita Angus's unnamed painting described as a "significant" discovery.
The painting is expected to fetch upwards of $380,000 at auction in Australia next Wednesday.
The 55.5 x 75.5 cm oil on board of a Hawke's Bay landscape is being auctioned by leading Australian fine art auction house Deutscher and Hackett.
The painting has an estimated sale range of A$350,000 to A$450,000 ($380,000 to $480,000).
It is believed to be the first time an Angus painting has been auctioned in Australia, and the Deutscher and Hackett catalogue notes it is ''only rarely that a new painting comes to light – one which has never been published".
The work is clearly a Hawke's Bay subject, but its title is undocumented, and is described as a "significant discovery".
Hawke's Bay Today asked readers if they recognised the landscape in the painting.
Tim Hindmarsh, from Crownthorpe, has come up with some sound logic that suggests Angus was inspired by scenes on Matapiro Rd, west of Fernhill.
"(It) definitely reminds me of Matapiro Rd, painted from the road a bit on the town side of the homestead (out of site) looking inland.
"I'm assuming a large amount of artistic licence in the road/river ... but the distant hills are quite familiar.''
Hindmarsh suggested that on the right of the painting ''the distant snow-clad mountains are the southern end of the Kawekas but if so, they don't actually come that far south".
''The lower two green 'pyramidy' hills [suggest] The Fort/Whanawhana.
"The larger green hill centre back is Big Hill station then the lower grey distant mountains far left are the northern end of the Ruahines.
"There is the Crownthorpe church but it would be out of sight from there so she has generously moved it across the road/river. It does closely resemble our church."
Hindmarsh also cites an old red barn on Matapiro Rd that has become part of the painting.
Angus was known to be in constant possession of a sketchbook, and would make quick sketches of anything that took her eye.
Born in Hastings in March 1908, she died of cancer in January 1970, aged 62. Most of her paintings were still in her possession.
Some 620 works were deposited on long-term loan at the National Art Gallery (now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa).
More than 70 of her works featured in Te Papa's summer exhibition Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa, which ended on Anzac Day.
The weighbridge is simple in design, with a traffic light system.