Els Noordhof Explained

Els Noordhof
Birth Name:	Elisabeth Johanna Noordhof
Birth Date:	24 February 1924
Birth Place:	Bloemendaal, Holland
Death Date:	7 March 2013
Death Place:	Otago, New Zealand
Nationality:	Dutch, American, New Zealander
Occupation:	Illustrator, artist

Elisabeth Johanna Noordhof (24 February 1924 – 7 March 2013), known as Els Noordhof or Els Noordhof-Smith, was a Dutch-born portrait artist and book illustrator.

Early life

Elisabeth Johanna Noordhof was born in 1924 in Bloemendaal, Holland, the daughter of Gosse Eilke Noordhof.^[1] She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Rijksmuseum in 1945.^[2] Her older brother George H. Noordhof became a filmmaker in England.^[3]

Career

Noordhof lived in England and the United States after World War II.^{[4] [5]} She and her family settled in New Zealand in 1966.^[6] She had a studio in Dunedin, and taught at the University of Otago's summer arts schools in Kurow. She painted the official portraits of several mayors of Dunedin, though mayor Sukhi Turner was not fond of her Noordhof portrait, and replaced it with a photograph in the city council chambers.^[7] She was a patron of the Otago Art Society.^[8]

Books illustrated by Els Noordhof

• Ruth Dallas, Ragamuffin Scarecrow (1969)^{[9] [10]}
• Olive Smithells, Look After Your Back, Streamline Your Front (1970)^[11]
• Esther Glen, Six Little New Zealanders (1983)^[12]
• Esther Glen, Uncles Three at Kamahi (1985)^[13]

Personal life and legacy

In 1949, while she was living in Cambridge, Noordhof married an American Fulbright scholar, Harold "Hal" Wendell Smith. They had four children. She was widowed when Smith died in 2006, and she died in 2013, aged 89 years. The National Library of New Zealand holds audio recordings of a 2002 oral history interview with Noordhof, conducted by Penelope Dunkley.^[14]

Her work was included in a 2017 exhibit, "About Face: Selected Portraits from the Collection", at the Eastern Southland Gallery.^[15]

External links

• A 1967 ink portrait by Elisabeth Noordhof, of poet James K. Baxter, in the Alexander Turnbull Library.
• "Boy and His Shadow" (circa 1976), a painting by Elisabeth Noordhof, in the collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
• 1969 newspaper photograph of Els Noordhof, Ruth Dallas and Keith Maslen, from a University of Otago Library exhibit.

Notes and References

1. News: Wedding Takes Place in Cambridge, England. 1949-07-08. The Evening Independent. 2020-04-14. 7. Newspapers.com.
2. Web site: Hocken Legacy. University of Otago Magazine. en-nz. 2020-04-14.
3. Web site: George Noordhof. BFI. en. 2020-04-14.
4. News: Return from England. 1950-09-01. The Evening Independent. 2020-04-14. 7. Newspapers.com.
5. News: Birth announcement. 1952-10-20. The Evening Independent. 2020-04-14. 2. Newspapers.com.
6. https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/media/uploads/2010_08/1985-07-123.pdf "Hal Smith: Lunchtime Poetry Readings"
7. Web site: Painting Snuck In. 2005-04-05. Channel 39. en. 2020-04-14.
8. Web site: The Permanent Collection. The Otago Art Society. en-NZ. 2020-04-14.
9. Book: Twentieth-century Children's Writers. 1978-11-10. Macmillan International Higher Education. 978-1-349-03648-6. 336. en.
10. Web site: The Black Art, Special Collections Exhibition. University of Otago Library, New Zealand. 2020-04-14.
11. Book: Smithells. Olive. Look after your back, streamline your front. Noordhof. Els. 1970. Dunedin, N.Z. : John McIndoe. en.
12. Book: Glen, Esther. Six little New Zealanders. 1983. Auckland, N.Z. : Hodder and Stoughton. 978-0-340-33881-0. en.
13. Web site: Esther Glen. Storylines. 2020-04-14. 26 January 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200126213458/https://www.storylines.org.nz/Storylines+Profiles/Profiles+D-H/More+in+Profiles+D-H/Esther+Glen.html. dead.
14. Web site: Interview with Elizabeth Noordhof. Noordhof. Elisabeth Johanna. 2002-03-22. Interview with Elizabeth Noordhof Items National Library of New Zealand National Library of New Zealand. en. 2020-04-14.
15. Web site: About Face. esgallery-x. en. 2020-04-14.