Description

A highly decorative chromolithographed view of Lake Wairarapa, a lake at the southern end of the North Island of New Zealand.

The print was published in a series New Zealand: graphic and descriptive, by Charles Decimus Barraud (1822  – 1897) issued in 1877. The lithographer was C.F. Kell in London.

Charles Decimus Barraud was England-born pharmacist and artist. In 1849 he emigrated with his wife  to Wellington, New Zealand in 1849, where he quickly established himself as a pharmacist in Lambton Quay. At the same time he was working as an amateur artist, painting mostly lanscapes and portraits in water-colours. After his eldest son, William Francis, entered the business, Charles was able to spend more time painting and he also spent some time in England from 1875 to 1877.On one of his trips to London he took with a selection of his landscape paintings, which were published in the portfolio New Zealand: graphic and descriptive in London in 1877.

After his pharmacy in Lambton Quay was destroyed by fire, in 1887, he retired and devoted himself fully to art.

Barraud’s illustrations are regarded as some of the most important early images of New Zealand landscapes.