Friday, October 10, 2008

Lectures and launches


Over recent weeks I attended 3 lectures on Hochstetter , Hamel, a photographer and Augustus Koch, draughtsman, artist and surveyor given in conjunction with a Hochstetter exhibition in the library. They were very interesting.

The first was on Hochstetter and given by Sacha Nolden, who is writing a book on Hochstetter (and one on Reischek) and who also curated the exhibition in the library. Hochstetter came from Vienna and his world expedition was on the ship, Novara. They first called into the Cape Colony where Sir George Grey was governor, then to Ceylon, Singapore, China then to Sydney and Auckland in December 1858. He looked at coal resources in South Auckland and the Drury area, travelled to Kawhia and Pirongia , Taupo then went to the South Island and Nelson where he looked at mineral resources there especially gold, copper and coal. While he was there he had some contact with the German settlers in Ranzen and Sarau. Soon after he left NZ and on board the Novara were 2 Maori chiefs who went back to be trained as printers in Vienna. They later went back to NZ via London where they had an audience with Queen Victoria.



The second was on Hamel and was given by John Webster who is the curator at Ewelme Cottage in Parnell. He went out and about with Hochstetter in the Auckland area and his pictures are in Hochstetter's book published in both German and English with some years between the two versions.

The third was on Augustus Koch and given by Prof Ralf Brednich from Victoria University in Wellington. Koch was a pioneer photographer in 1858-59 and draughtsman. There is a short manuscript of his life in the Turnbull Library. He came to NZ for the second time on the Novara to illustrate the shipboard newspaper. He had been a political cartoonist in Berlin where he studied art at an early age. He was also a draughtman and surveyor and did some sketches which were included in Hochstetter's book. One was of the mission station church at Taupiri, another of artifacts they saw and also carvings at Tokaanu and Ngongataha . Twelve of his sketches were published and Hochstetter took the rest (round 100) back to Vienna where they disappeared. A lot of the material ended up in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and while we were there a few weeks ago we trekked out to see if we could see some of this material, particularly Reischek's treasure trove (some pirated from Maori caves) but the museum was closed and has been for sometime they say. Koch later went to Napier where he was surveyor with the Land and Survey Dept., shifting to Wellington as Senior Draughtsman in the Public Works Dept, from which he was later made redundant. He earned his living as an artist, cartoonist , drew maps as he had done in Hawkes Bay, and was an illustrator eg for the book, Famous grasses of NZ by John McKay.

On a more mundane level I went to the launch of Paula Ryan's Summer Collection with friend Pamela at Smith and Caughey's after work on Wednesday. Over a glass of bubbles and canapes we looked at her stylie black and white clothes, with an occasional touch of colour . I liked them and went back to look at them on Friday and will try some on on another occasion, but they are hellishly expensive.

The next night we both went to the launch of a book on Charles Heaphy by Iain Sharp from the Special Collections Dept of the library. Heaphy was multi-talented - a painter, explorer and writer. Iain gave an interesting speech on his research, mentioning Papers Past a digital resource which has fulltext NZ newpaper articles from very early on. He mentioned a court case Heaphy gave evidence in in the 1870s in and showed just how much was to be found in these early newspapers and how Papers Past made it so much easier. We had some prints of his, put out by the Turnbull Library a few years ago but they have been sold on Trademe as we had too many prints. The picture accompanying this post is a Turnbull print of Aorere-Golden Bay (circa 1843) possibly by Charles Heaphy. We still have this lovely print with all boats in the cove and Maori hanging their fish to dry. And a book, also a reprint of his narrative of his travels in NZ. Didn't buy the book at the launch as there was a queue and I was feeling a bit tired after the rather nice chardonnay and dips and crostini so just went home.

Watch this space for next week's launch!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for your kind words on the Heaphy launch, Anna, and for reminding me of the fascinating watercolour of Maori fish-drying methods at Aorere in the 1840s. I did not include this painting in my book because I felt too uncertain that Heaphy was the painter. While some elements, such as the curvature of the bay, the reflection of ships' rigging in the water and the prominence given to fish-drying racks, are reminiscent of Heaphy's work elsewhere, the crowded nature of the composition, the colouring and the way the figures in the foreground are drawn suggest another hand.
    Heaphy visited the Aorere Valley at least twice in the 1840s: in early January 1844 and (with Thomas Brunner at the beginning of their epic journey along the West Coast) in mid to late March 1846. There's a drawing in my book from the 1844 trip that shows the same general area as the watercolour, looking down on Tata Beach with the Wakamarama Range in the background -- but without the fish driers.
    The original from which your print was taken is in the Alexander Turnbull Library. You can view it on the Timeframes website at http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz/logicrouter/servlet/LogicRouter?PAGE=object&OUTPUTXSL=object.xslt&pm_RC=REPO02DB&pm_OI=35924&pm_GT=Y&pm_IAC=Y&api_1=GET_OBJECT_XML&num_result=0&Object_Layout=viewimage_object. Marian Minson, the Turnbull's brilliant and meticulous librarian in charge of pictorial collections, says that when the painting was purchased by the library from Christie's in London in November 1971 it was "assumed to be the work of Charles Heaphy, but seen to be too primitive in style for him". Interestingly, James Swinton Spooner, a friend and occasional travelling companion of Heaphy in the 1840s, has also been suggested as the painter, but "the library has no other examples of his work with which to make a comparison".
    I love the stingrays hanging up among the fish, by the way.

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