| Collection |
MHS Art |
| Date |
about 1872 |
| Description |
E.C. (Edward Christopher) Wyvill, View of Picton, between 1874 and 1882, oil on wooden panel
Gifted in 1966 by Mrs Decima Date (nee Tripe), whose father worked in Picton.
Edward Wyvill (about 1829 - 1889) was an Anglican vicar who arrived from England in 1858 and ministered at Kekerengu and Picton. In 1862 he and his brother Frank bought the farm Raydale on the Tua Marina Track, near their friend John Chaytor's Marshlands farm. The Chaytor family were Wyvill's greatest patrons, owning at least fifty of his paintings.
Edward Wyvill retired to Picton in 1882 and continued painting. Later that year he exhibited four small oils at the inaugural exhibition of Wellington's Fine Arts Association, the forerunner of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.
A reviewer was sufficiently impressed to single out these views of Picton and Essons Valley as '... faithful portraits of the places they represent ... through perhaps a little too highly colored [sic].'
This view is from near the present-day lookout on Queen Charlotte Drive. It shows the wool store on Picton's wharf, the growing township, and, just visible beyond at the Elevation, is the wooden viaduct, a remarkable engineering feat opened in 1874 to carry the railway line through to the Wairau Plain. But the real subject of the painting is the show-stopping landscape. Essons Valley and Mount Robertson are bathed in romantic glowing light as the horseman rides up the old Grove Track to where the artist was perched.
This painting probably belonged to the donor's father Dr. Julius Decimus Tripe, who practiced in Picton from 1873 and was Marlborough's first provincial surgeon.
Label for Hidden Gems exhibition July to September 2014 written by Jane Vial, Guest Curator. |
| Year Range from |
1872 |
| Object ID |
1966.001.0001 |
| Object Name |
Painting |
| Other # |
1628 |
| People |
Wyvill, Edward Christopher
Chaytor, Anthony David Clervaux
Date, Delia Decima Claire (nee Tripe)
Tripe, Delia Decima Claire (later Date) |
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