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Hocken Digital Collections

The Taieri Plains

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Accession Number7,475CreatorO'Brien, George, 1821-1888Also known asTaken from the the Upper or Halfway Bush Road leading down to the north TaieriDate1867

Description

Media & Sizewatercolour & opaque white on paper: 292 x 704mmInscriptionsl.l. with brush: G. O'Brien 1867; on mount in ink in Dr Hocken's hand: The Taieri Plains, 1867. Taken from the the Upper or Halfway Bush Road leading down to the north Taieri. Saddle Hill. T.M. Hocken; label in ink in Dr Hocken's hand: To the left & below Saddle Hill (so named by Cap. Cook) are Scrogg's hill, after the surveyor, and the main south road just discernible. Mosgiel is not visible and indeed was hardly in existence. In the distance are the Waipori Hills & Waihola Lake & Maunga-Atua mountain a shoulder of which shows a piece of the zig-zag road leading to the Tuapeka diggings & where the highwayman Garret seized his prisoners in 1862. Near the foot was Mr James Fulton's property. The entrance to the Taieri Gorge with the Taieri River are visible, the end of the Chain Hills forming a boundary. The West Taieri ferry & Outram are here. To the extreme right is the termination of the Flagstaff. The winding road passes the old racecourse & Donald Reid's farm & is in the vicinity of the Otago Central Railway. No vestige remains of the Big Bush. T.M. Hocken.DescriptionBorn into Irish aristocracy in County Clare and employed as an engineer and architectural draughtsman in Melbourne, George O’Brien (1821--88) already had a reputation as an accomplished watercolourist before arriving in Dunedin in 1863. Here he worked initially as a perspectivist for leading New Zealand architects of the day, including William Mason, Robert Lawson, Thomas Forrester and William Clayton. He went on to become a founding member of the Otago Art Society in 1876 and dominated their first exhibition with 28 works.

Underneath the mount, Dr Hocken has written his own label c.1900 explaining the landscape -- a tribute to O’Brien’s topographical realism, and showing how for Hocken, the countryside around Dunedin was inscribed with its human history:

To the left & below Saddle Hill (so named by Cap. Cook) are Scrogg’s Hill, after the surveyor, and the main south road just discernible. Mosgiel is not visible and indeed was hardly in existence. In the distance are the Waipori Hills & Waihola Lake & Maunga-Atua mountain, a shoulder of which shows a piece of the zig-zag road leading to the Tuapeka diggings & where the highwayman Garret seized his prisoners in 1862. Near the foot was Mr James Fulton’s property. The entrance to the Taieri Gorge with the Taieri River are visible, the end of the Chain Hills forming a boundary. The West Taieri ferry & Outram are here. To the extreme right is the termination of Flagstaff. The winding road passes the old racecourse & Donald Reid’s farm & is in the vicinity of the Otago Central Railway. No vestige remains of the Big Bush.ProvenanceDr T.M. Hocken’s Collection

Depicts Or Relates To

PlacesTaieriTaieri GorgeTaieri RiverTaieri PlainLake WaiholaWaiporiMaukaatua Scenic Reserve

CollectionNatural environment / TaiaoDr Hocken’s original collection

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The Taieri Plains

Hocken Collections | Te Uare Taoka o Hākena