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Lot #21 - George French Angas

  • Auction House:
    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Sale Name:
    Two Important Private Collections: Modern / Traditional
  • Sale Date:
    08 Dec 2021 ~ 7pm (AEDT)
  • Lot #:
    21
  • Lot Description:
    George French Angas
    (1822 - 1886)
    Pepepe, Church Missionary, Station (NZ), Residence of Rev B Ashwell, 1844
    watercolour on paper
    20.0 x 27.5 cm (sheet)
    inscribed verso: Residence of Rev Benjamin Ashwell – Church Misy [Missionary] Station / at Pepepe (butterfly). / Kaitotehe District / on the Waikato / 60 miles from … / Oct 2nd 1844
    Related Work/s: Missionary’s house, New Zealand, 1844, watercolour on paper, 16.9 x 22.8 cm, in the collection of Rex Nan Kivell, National Library of Australia, Canberra ; Pepepe, 1844, watercolour on paper, 37.0 x 54.6 cm, in the collection of the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington; Pepepe, Church Missionary Station, On the Waikato River New Zealand, lithograph, 19.1 x 28 cm, illus. in Angas, G.F.,; Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, London, 1847, vol. 2, p. 36 ; We are grateful to Philip Jones, Adelaide, for his assistance with this catalogue entry.
  • Provenance:
    Private collection; Lauraine Diggins Gallery, Melbourne (label attached verso); David Dridan, Adelaide; Private collection, Adelaide, acquired from the above in June 1984; Thence by descent; Private collection, Adelaide
  • Exhibited:
    Possibly: 'Mr G. French Angas's New Zealand and Australian exhibition', Egyptian Hall, London, April – August 1846, cat. 86'; Selected Australian Works of Art', Lauraine Diggins Gallery, Melbourne, May 1984, cat. 5 (label attached verso, illus. in exhibition catalogue)
  • References:
    A Catalogue of paintings by George French Angas, Illustrative of the Natives and Scenery of New Zealand and South Australia', W. Nicol, London, 1847, cat. 86, p. 7
  • Notes:
    The following excerpts are from Philip Jones’ recent publication illustrating the 'Antipodes: George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844 – 1845', National Library of Australia, Canberra in association with the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, 2021. According to Angas’s published account [of four months in New Zealand], the party setting out for the Waikato River comprised himself and [Thomas] Forsaith [Protector of Aborigines], with ‘five native boys’, a standard ratio for a mid-nineteenth-century colonial expedition through an unmapped landscape. The party set out for the south [from Auckland] on the morning of 26 September [1844]. … [a] destination was the Church Missionary Society mission at Pepepe, close to the sacred mountain of Taupiri where the Tu Kaitote 'pa' stood, one of two main 'pa' maintained by the paramount rangatira of the Waikato, Te Wherowhero. He and his followers were at Whatawhata on the Waipa River; George French would meet the rangatira there some days later. In the meantime, he was free to sketch a detailed view of the pa with the Taupiri mountain behind. The mission had been established by Edward Ashworth of the Church Missionary Society only a year or two earlier. It was as picturesque as any subject for Angas: ‘At a bend of the river, the romantic cottage of the missionary suddenly appeared in view.  It was as lovely and secluded a spot as it is possible to imagine: the little cottage built of  'raupo', with its white chimneys. And its garden full of flowers – of sweet English flowers, roses, stocks and mignonette – was snugly perched on an elevated plateau overhanging the Waikato: and the access to it was by a small bridge thrown across a glen of fern trees, with a stream murmuring below.’1 1. Angas, 'Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand', London, 1847, vol.2, p.37 in Jones, P., 'George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844 – 1845', National Library of Australia, Canberra in association with the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, 2021, footnote 62, p. 358 PHILIP JONES
  • Estimate:
    A$50,000 - 80,000
  • Realised Price:
    *****

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  • Category:
    Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.



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