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C1847
Sea Coast near the River Ohau.
Artist:
Samuel Charles Brees (1809 - 1865)
Between 1841 and 1846 the province included all of the North Island north of the Patea River. With the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1846, the province came to include all of the North Island. Like the other … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Sea Coast near the River Ohau.
Date:
C1847
Artist:
Samuel Charles Brees (1809 - 1865)
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Hand coloured engraving.
Image Size:
147mm
x 85mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1847
Description:
Between 1841 and 1846 the province included all of the North Island north of the Patea River. With the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1846, the province came to include all of the North Island. Like the other province of New Zealand at the time, New Munster, New Ulster was headed by a Lieutenant-Governor who reported to the Governor of New Zealand. In 1852 the a new Constitution Act was passed, and the province was divided into Auckland, Wellington and New Plymouth
Biography:
Samuel Charles Brees (1809-1865)
Samuel Brees 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.
