The Nan Kivell Collection

Missionary Settlement at Rangihona, on the north side of the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
Oil. Size 8⅞″ × 12″.
Artist unknown.

In the days before photography the artist played an extremely important part in recording the scenes and events of his time. But there were many besides professional artists who possessed the ability and inclination to sketch and record what they saw. With the passing of time the works of such men who came to this country during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are becoming only too rare, but when collected together can provide an immensely valuable pictorial recard of our history.

Mr Rex Nan Kivell, a London art dealer has had the enthusiasm and the opportunity to assemble a remarkable collection of early New Zealand oils, watercolours, lithographs, prints, and drawings. This collection, which has been brought to this country on loan from its war-time sanctuary in Canberra, is expected to be on public exhibition in Wellington early next year and later in other districts.

Containing, as if does, a wealth of original and priceless material, including watercolours by James Webber, who voyaged with Cook, records of the military campaigns, rare drawings of Maori dwellings and storehouses of the earliest recorded period, and many fine prints and lithographs of the first settlements, it would be a cause for regret if the collection should be allowed to leave the country. But even if it should not be possible to retain it permanently in our national archives, the many New Zealanders who will have the opportunity of seeing the pictures will be grateful to Mr Nan Kivell and the organisers of the exhibition. It remains to add that Mr Nan Kivell is a New Zealander and a director of the Redfern Galleries.

Portrait of Abel Tasman, his second wife and child by his first wife.
Oil: Size 42″ × 51¾″.
Artist unknown, but probably contemporary.

Valley of the Waikato.,
Watercolour. Size 10″ × 14″.
John Alexander Gilfillan.

page 108

Auckland 1858.
Watercolour. Size 16⅛″ × 24″.
J. Bunney.

Typical drawing of Moko with detail analysed.
Black and white. Size 11⅛″ × 8⅓″.
H. G. Robley.

page 109

Coast of New Zealand with marching soldiers.
Oil. Size 25″ × 30″.
Artist and locality unknown.

Canterbury Mill, 1853.
Drawing and wash. Size 6⅝″ × 10″.
E. Dobson.
(Dobson was designer of the Lyttelton Tunnel.)