Rita Angus is best known to us as she saw herself, or wanted to be seen, in the many self-portraits she made throughout her career. In her self-portraits, she sometimes adopted a persona that allowed her to project an aspect of her complex character not obvious to the casual acquaintance. Schoon's portrait of Angus, by contrast, presents the sitter as she appeared to an astute and sympathetic observer who was a personal and trusted friend. We know that Schoon and Angus probably first met in Christchurch in 1939 when he was briefly enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art. As well as art they shared interests in pacifism, yoga, meditation and Buddhist thought. In fact, Schoon made another portrait of Angus showing her sitting in the lotus position.Schoon later knew Angus in Wellington where he was working as a commercial photographer during the early 1940s. He attracted Angus because of his lively personality and background,  he had lived in Java while growing up and had studied at the Rotterdam School of Art. He was young, handsome, charismatic and exotic. Despite his misogyny and overt homosexuality that prejudiced him against most women artists, he saw in Angus a genuine artistic talent. She began a fine portrait of Schoon in 1941 which demonstrates the regard in which she held him, but left it unfinished. Later Schoon was a welcome visitor when she was living in a cottage near Christchurch. Their friendship continued even though Schoon adopted a more modernist stance and distanced himself from the painted portraits he made in his youth. He did continue, however, to take photographic portraits throughout his career including many self-portraits. Although Schoon's portraiture has not yet been adequately researched, we know that he was accomplished in the idiom both with brush and camera. He made a fine black and white photographic portrait of Angus in late 1943 while visiting Christchurch. This shows her with the identical hairstyle and facial lines as those in the painted portrait, suggesting they were executed about the same time. The portrait could possibly have been executed in her studio with her materials. Like the photograph, it is focused on the head and there is a dark-blue background with nothing to indicate her life as a painter. Schoon painted quickly and confidently from life with little correction or revision showing her face tilted down and giving an impression of introspection. The restricted palette with a deep-blue background recalls Picasso's Blue Period paintings and generates a similar mood: we see Angus appearing somewhat isolated and vulnerable. It is an intimate portrait with a surprising sensitivity to the psychological dimension of the sitter. There is little artifice about the composition, especially with sketchy arms hanging down and cropped off abruptly. It was a work not made for commercial reasons but as a manifestation of friendship and mutual respect and was apparently not exhibited during Angus' lifetime but did once belong to Doris Lusk. It is a portrait that is important on a number of levels: historic, artistic and personal.