Austen Deans

Alister Austen Deans (2 December 1915 – 18 October 2011) was a New Zealand painter, known for his landscapes and for his work as a war artist in the Second World War.

Born in Christchurch to a well-known farming family, Deans became interested in art in his teenage years.

He studied fine arts at the Canterbury College School of Art before returning to the family farm for work.

He volunteered for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the outbreak of the Second World War, and was posted to the 20th Battalion.

Deans was born on 2 December 1915 in Christchurch, New Zealand, one of two sons of Alister and Norma Deans.

His father, Alister, was a scion of the Deans family, notable in Christchurch for being one of the earliest European settlers in the region, and was later killed at the Battle of Passchendaele.

His mother was the daughter of the farmer Harry Knight.

Austen Deans' early years were spent on the family farm near Malvern before, when he was 10, his mother moved to the Riccarton suburb in Christchurch.

He was educated at Medbury School and at Christ's College.

His interest in art developed when he was 12 years old, while on holidays at the family farm.

He tramped into the hills taking painting and sketching materials with him.

Family friends encouraged him in his art and when he finished his education, he decided to go to art school.

Studying at the University of Canterbury towards a Bachelor of Arts concurrently with learning fine arts at the Canterbury College School of Art, he made the acquaintance of Bill Sutton.

Despite being more interested in landscape work, he received much training in life drawing.

Colin Lovell-Smith, Evelyn Page and Archibald Nicoll were influences.

Deans graduated in 1937 and returned to the family farm to work.

This financed his tramping trips to the Southern Alps where he would make several sketches and watercolours of the hill country.

He received favourable reviews of his work at exhibitions at the School of Art's Sketch Club and the Canterbury Arts Society.

Dame Ngaio Marsh was an early supporter and soon he was making a number of sales of his work.

The outbreak of the Second World War disrupted Deans' plans to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

Instead, he volunteered for war service abroad with the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF).

Posted to the 20th Battalion of the 2nd New Zealand Division, he was assigned to its intelligence section on account of his skills as an artist.

His duties involved making and looking after maps but while off duty he continued to paint.

By 1940, Deans was in the Middle East, where the 2NZEF had been transported for war service.

He continued with his painting, doing landscapes of the Egypt countryside.

His battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Howard Kippenberger, was supportive of his work.

Deans later completed a portrait of Kippenberger which was used to illustrate his biography.

In 1941 he was appointed an assistant war artist, serving under Peter McIntyre.

However, he was wounded during the Battle of Crete and became a prisoner of war (POW).

Allowed to paint during his captivity, his work was a useful record of life as a POW.

After the war, he studied painting at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute in England before settling down on a lifestyle block in Canterbury.

He was a prolific painter of the Canterbury hill country.

In March 1941, the 2nd New Zealand Division was sent to Greece.

The British Government anticipated an invasion of Greece by the Germans and decided to send troops to support the Greeks, who were already engaged against the Italians in Albania.

The 2nd New Zealand Division was one of a number of Allied units dispatched to Greece.

The campaign was little more than a series of withdrawals but Deans still found time to make depictions of life in the Greek villages he saw.

At the end of the fighting in Greece, Deans was among those evacuated to Crete.

In the meantime, the New Zealand Government was considering appointing an official war artist to record the exploits of New Zealanders serving with the military.

Deans had already been interviewed for the position the previous year and his application was supported by many in New Zealand, particularly from the Canterbury region.

Made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1995, he died in October 2011.