Wellington Harbour

Charles Decimus Barraud (1822 - 1897)

Barraud was born in England in 1822, the 10th child of 12. After losing his father at the age of 11, he was not able to afford the expensive education necessary to become a doctor and so instead, trained as a chemist and druggist. He married Sarah Maria Style in March 1849 with whom he had six sons and three daughters. Soon after the wedding, Barraud followed the advice of his cousin-in law Judge H.S. Chapman and moved to New Zealand with his wife. They arrived in the Pilgrim at Wellington on 20 August and stayed in Chapman’s cottage in the hills of Karori until their house Fernglen on the Terrace was completed. Barraud later opened a chemist shop in Lambton Quay and gained enough business to allow him to travel across New Zealand. While traveling he completed numerous sketches which later formed the basis for his watercolours and oils. While he had no formal training as an artist, he was a member of a strongly artistic family and was no doubt influenced by his older brothers, two of whom had exhibited art at the Royal Academy. Charles’s own talent was quickly recognised and his artwork gained early acclaim in New Zealand. The then Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey, commissioned Barraud in 1853 to complete an oil depicting the baptism of the Maori Chief Te Puni in Otaki Church, which became one of Barraud’s best known works. Barraud established another shop called the Pill Box in the 1860s and also set up other branches in Napier and Wanganui. In 1875, his eldest son took over the running of the business, allowing Charles to return to England for two years. He took a selection of his best artwork with him and 74 of these were published as lithographs and woodcuts in New Zealand : Graphic and Descriptive, London: 1877. Shortly after his return to New Zealand, he founded the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand, becoming its first president, and later became the president of the Pharmacy Board. In 1882, Barraud helped establish the Fine Arts Association and became president two years later. He continued as president of the FAA’s successor, the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, and remained in that position until his death in 1897. During his tenure, he was responsible for opening the academy’s first gallery, in Whitmore Street, Wellington, which would later become the National Art Gallery.

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