This issue titled 'The Land' was the first of a 'Heritage ' series of six stamp issues leading up to the 1990, 150th anniversary celebrations in New Zealand. Over the next few months I will be publishing posts on the other five issues as well as a summery page showing all six issues together.
This issue 'The Land' - consisted of a set of six stamps featuring reproductions of early New Zealand paintings completed by some of the country's most famous 19th century artists. These artists interpreted the crystal clear light and rugged scenery in a romanticised European fashion. Their paintings were often sent to England as the first record of the new found frontier - persuading many settlers to emigrate.
The stamps were designed with boarders much the same a real paining might to framed. All six stamps featured scenery from various parts of New Zealand by six famous Artists.
A First Day Cover was also included with the set, compete with it own special cancel strike.
The Designs and Artists.
40c - John Gully - 'Lake Pukaki'.
In 1926, John Gully was said to be 'the greatest landscape painter of this country, as was Turner of Europe'. His watercolours were generous in scale, dramatic in feeling and gave the English gentry a taste for the unusual beauty of New Zealand.
Born in Bath, England 21 March 1819; died Nelson, New Zealand, 1 Nov 1888). New Zealand painter of English birth. He arrived in New Plymouth, with his wife and three children, in 1852. First working as a shopkeeper, when that venture failed he began teaching privately and advertising for painting commissions. On the outbreak of the Taranaki land wars, Gully moved to Nelson where he again struggled to establish himself as an artist and art teacher, eventually finding full-time work as a draughtsman in the provincial Survey Office.
Specializing in lake and mountain views in the style of J. M. W. Turner and frequently working on a very grand scale, Gully exhibited regularly in New Zealand and Australia, and in Europe. A portfolio of chromolithographs based on his watercolours, New Zealand Scenery, was published in London in 1877 although Gully was said to have been disappointed with the reproduction. The vast number of works he exhibited, and the high prices he asked for them, indicate that Gully was one of the more successful New Zealand artists of the period.
60c - William Fox - 'On the Grass Plain Below Lake Arthur'.
William Fox's paintings became a true visual record of the newly discovered lands and he was known for his great ability at capturing the essence of the local landscape. He explored the South Island with Charles Heaphy - they were probably the first Europeans ever to sight Lake Rotorua near where he painted 'Below Lake Arthur'.
Sir William Fox, KCMG (1812 – 23 June 1893) was the second Premier of New Zealand on four occasions in the 19th century, while New Zealand was still a colony. He was known for his confiscation of Māori land rights, his contributions to the education system (such as establishing the University of New Zealand), and his work to increase New Zealand's autonomy from Britain. He has been described as determined and intelligent, but also as bitter and "too fond" of personal attacks. Different aspects of his personality are emphasised by different accounts, changing mainly due to the reviewers' political beliefs.
Fox was a talented and prolific painter of landscapes; his early paintings of Nelson & Wairarapa are significant in NZ's art history. His realistic style was largely free of the romantic anglicisation prevalent in many other artist's work of the time.
Fox was a very intelligent man, an excellent debater, but bitter, vituperative. A contemporary, William Gisborne, wrote that he was too fond of personal denunciation. He was a great hater. In politics he tended to react to events rather than to initiate. He knew what he did not like, but had little positive vision of what he did want. Consequently, more determined men, who did know what they wanted, could dominate him. He was not a great leader, not a populist, like Grey, but few New Zealand leaders have made a mark in so many areas – constitutional development, politics, social reform, painting and exploration.
70c - John Barr Clarke Hoyte - 'View of Auckland in 1873'.
John Hoyte lived in New Zealand from 1862-1879. Known for "a clearness of outline peculiar to his pictures", he organised exhibitions throughout New Zealand and as far a field as Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.
John Barr Clark Hoyte (22 December 1835–21 February 1913) was a New Zealand artist and teacher. He was born in London, England on 22nd December, 1835
Mr. Hoyte while in England, received his early artistic training, but some years of his early manhood were spent in the West Indies. Returning to England about 1860, Mr. Hoyte married, and shortly afterwards decided to sail for New Zealand, where some time after his arrival he joined the teaching staff of the Auckland Grammar School.
It was about this time that Mr. Hoyte's artistic work began to bring him into prominence. It was not long before he occupied a leading position in New Zealand art circles, and it is as a portrayer of the scenic beauties of the Dominion that he will be long remembered. Right up to the time of his death his work found keen appreciation. About 1877 Mr. Hoyte left New Zealand, and settled in Sydney.
He was one of the founders and the first president of the Royal Art Society, among those associated with him at the time being Mr. A. J. Daplyn, the present secretary of the society. Of late years Mr. Hoyte had been but little before the Sydney art public. He was one of the old school, and found it difficult to adopt his ideas to the conventions of the newer artistic cult.
80c - Charles Heaphy - 'Mount Egmont from the Southward'.
Described as "a young artist of rare distinction with remarkable originality and insight", Charles Heaphy is probably the most celebrated of our 19th Century water-colourists. He is most famous for works like 'Mt Egmont', where Heaphy shows a degree of sensitivity to the clarity of New Zealand light.
Major Charles Heaphy VC (1820 – 3 August 1881) was an English-born New Zealand explorer and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), He also a noted artist and executed several works of early colonial life in New Zealand.
Born in England, he joined the New Zealand Company in 1839. He arrived in New Zealand later that year, and was tasked with creating art for advertising the country to potential English migrants. Much of the next two and half years was spent travelling and executing paintings of landscapes and life around the centre of the country. When his contract with the company ended in 1842, he lived in Nelson for several years and explored large parts of the West Coast.
He moved north to Auckland to take up employment as a surveyor. During the Invasion of the Waikato, his militia unit was mobilised and it was his conduct at Paterangi, where he rescued British soldiers under fire, that saw him awarded the VC. This is highest and most prestigious military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Heaphy was the first soldier of New Zealand's military to reveive the award. (See my post 2011 Victoria Cross.)
After his military service ended, he served a term as Member of Parliament for Parnell. From 1870 to 1881, he held a variety of civil service positions but his health declined and he moved to Queensland, seeking a better climate in which to recover. He died a few months after his arrival.
$1.05 - John Kinder - 'Anakiwa, Queen Charlotte Sound'.
For John Kinder, painting watercolours was an amusement he began more as a record of his holiday trips to the Colony. The bulk of the Kinder Collection is in the Auckland Art Gallery - given as a gift from his son in 1937.
John Kinder was born on 17 September 1819 at London, England, the oldest surviving child of Thomas Kinder, a wealthy merchant. John's interest in art began early when he took walks near Southampton in the mid 1830s to look at Gothic architecture. At Southampton he also met Aaron Penley, a noted watercolourist and teacher, who taught him the principles of watercolour painting and related disciplines such as perspective.
In 1838 he began his studies at the University of Cambridge. He studied mathematics, but his real interest lay in Classics and theology. After graduating MA in 1845 Kinder studied for the Anglican priesthood in London. He was ordained deacon on Trinity Sunday 1846 and priest at Lichfield Cathedral in 1848. Kinder was interviewed by Bishop G. A. Selwyn for the new position of headmaster at the Church of England Grammar School to be established at Auckland, New Zealand. He was accepted, and in July 1855 sailed with his mother and sister Fanny for New Zealand. He was never to return to England.
In New Zealand Kinder expanded his activity as a painter, responding to the challenge of his new environment. Kinder was primarily a landscape and architectural photographer, although he did take a few portraits of family and friends, including Celia Kinder and the Reverend Vicesimus Lush, vicar of Howick.
In his photographs and paintings Kinder imposed a sense of order on his views, as if regulating them to current conventions of composition where clarity and intelligibility were paramount. This tidiness, combined with the serene calmness of the depicted weather conditions, can give a utopian or idealised dimension to his colonial scenes. While there is a high degree of objectivity in his works, this does not exclude an element of interpretation – an adaptation of landforms and buildings to an ideal. His art expresses a positive view of the colonising process.
John Kinder died at his home in Remuera on 5 September 1903, and was buried in the graveyard at St John's College. He was survived by his wife, Celia Kinder, who died in 1928.
$1.30 - Charles Decimus Barraud - 'White Terraces, Lake Rotomahana'.
Charles Barraud was especially fond of the unique atmospheric effects of late New Zealand afternoons. He spent 26 years travelling and recording his impressions of New Zealand's picturesque scenery.
Charles Decimus Barraud was born in Camberwell, London, England, on 9 May 1822, the 10th child (of 12) of William Francis Barraud and his wife, Sophia Hull. Barraud wanted to become a doctor, but his father, a clerk in the Custom House, London, died when Charles was only 11 years old and his family could not afford the expensive training. He had to content himself with qualifying as a chemist and druggist. He practised in Southampton.
On 17 March 1849 at St Lawrence's Church, Southampton, he married Sarah Maria Style. Charles and Sarah had six sons and three daughters. Soon after their marriage they were encouraged to emigrate to New Zealand by Judge H. S. Chapman, Charles's cousin by marriage. They sailed in the Pilgrim and arrived at Wellington on 20 August 1849. Chapman lent the Barrauds a cottage near his house, Homewood, in the hills of Karori, while their home, Fernglen, was being built on The Terrace. Barraud established himself as a chemist, with a shop in Lambton Quay.
Meanwhile he also pursued his interest in painting. He was an enthusiastic amateur, and among his French Huguenot ancestors were many artists and craftsmen. Three of his brothers were artists (two had had formal training and exhibited at the Royal Academy) and they probably influenced their younger brother. Barraud won early recognition as an artist in New Zealand, and his paintings from 1850 onwards are of considerable historical value. He worked mostly in watercolours but also produced a few oils. He did portraits of the Maori chiefs Honiana Te Puni-kokopu and Te Rangihaeata.
Recently esteem for his work has grown, with increased demand among collectors who invest in paintings of his period. In 1984 his oil 'Southern Alps and lake with colonial explorers in foreground' sold for NZ$21,000 at an auction in Wellington.
Barraud died in Wellington on 26 December 1897 and was buried in the Bolton Street cemetery, after a service in St Paul's Church.
Printing Error.
An interesting flaw appeared on one 70c 'View of Auckland' stamp. In the block of 4 above look closely at the bottom left-hand stamp. Partly under the 'D' in the word ZEALAND you can see a round white ring. This mark was caused by a piece of dirt or dried ink that attached itself to the printing plate of the buff colour and went unnoticed for a while.
Technical information.
Date of Issue:
| 5 October, 1988. |
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Designers:
| R M Conly, Waikanae. |
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Printers:
| Leigh-Mardon, Australia. |
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Stamp Size:
| 40mm x 28mm. |
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Sheet Size:
| 100 stamps per sheet. |
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Process:
| Lithography. |
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Paper Type:
| Unwatermarked. |
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Sources of information included.
Born in Bath, England 21 March 1819; died Nelson, New Zealand, 1 Nov 1888). New Zealand painter of English birth. He arrived in New Plymouth, with his wife and three children, in 1852. First working as a shopkeeper, when that venture failed he began teaching privately and advertising for painting commissions. On the outbreak of the Taranaki land wars, Gully moved to Nelson where he again struggled to establish himself as an artist and art teacher, eventually finding full-time work as a draughtsman in the provincial Survey Office. 
Sir William Fox, KCMG (1812 – 23 June 1893) was the second Premier of New Zealand on four occasions in the 19th century, while New Zealand was still a colony. He was known for his confiscation of Māori land rights, his contributions to the education system (such as establishing the University of New Zealand), and his work to increase New Zealand's autonomy from Britain. He has been described as determined and intelligent, but also as bitter and "too fond" of personal attacks. Different aspects of his personality are emphasised by different accounts, changing mainly due to the reviewers' political beliefs. 
John Kinder was born on 17 September 1819 at London, England, the oldest surviving child of Thomas Kinder, a wealthy merchant. John's interest in art began early when he took walks near Southampton in the mid 1830s to look at Gothic architecture. At Southampton he also met Aaron Penley, a noted watercolourist and teacher, who taught him the principles of watercolour painting and related disciplines such as perspective. 
Charles Decimus Barraud was born in Camberwell, London, England, on 9 May 1822, the 10th child (of 12) of William Francis Barraud and his wife, Sophia Hull. Barraud wanted to become a doctor, but his father, a clerk in the Custom House, London, died when Charles was only 11 years old and his family could not afford the expensive training. He had to content himself with qualifying as a chemist and druggist. He practised in Southampton. 