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C1847
N’Houranga. (Ngauranga)
Artist:
Samuel Charles Brees (1809 - 1865)
Suburb of Wellington on the western shoreline of Port Nicholson. In the 1830’s there was a Maori pah and it was with members of this pah on 23 September 1839, that Colonel Wakefield discussed the purchase of land for the … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
N’Houranga. (Ngauranga)
Date:
C1847
Artist:
Samuel Charles Brees (1809 - 1865)
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Hand coloured engraving.
Image Size:
147mm
x 90mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1847
Description:
Suburb of Wellington on the western shoreline of Port Nicholson. In the 1830’s there was a Maori pah and it was with members of this pah on 23 September 1839, that Colonel Wakefield discussed the purchase of land for the Wellington settlement. The chief when he died in 1842 was buried with his canoe up-ended as a memorial.
Biography:
Samuel Charles Brees (1809-1865)
This engraving is from the series by Samuel Brees who arrived in Wellington in 1842 to fill the position of surveyor and civil engineer for the New Zealand Company. During his time in Wellington he was responsible for continuing the work of his predecessor, William Mein Smith, surveying the Karori Road and the hills surrounding Wellington Harbour. He oversaw the completion of the initial Wanganui and Manawatu surveys.
In 1843 he led an exploratory journey to the southern Wairarapa through Upper Hutt and the Rimutaka range, and prepared the preliminary subdivisions of these areas. By August 1844, six months before Brees’s contract was due to expire, the New Zealand Company was in financial difficulties and was no longer able to pay him. Throughout his period as principal surveyor he had given as much of his spare time as possible to his favourite leisure activity of recording his surroundings in pencil and watercolour.
The ending of his employment freed him to devote more time to painting, while he settled his affairs and arranged for his family’s return passage to England. He had produced a substantial portfolio of views of all the areas he had visited, particularly scenes in and around Wellington. These works would normally have become the property of the New Zealand Company, but the company waived its claim to them in the expectation that Brees would publish the sketches and be somewhat compensated for the loss of income he had suffered through the early termination of his contract.
On 8 May 1845 Brees, with his wife, now four children, and a servant, sailed on the brig Caledonia for London. His drawings were superbly engraved by Henry Melville in London and remain an important record of early Colonial settlement in New Zealand.
