Provenance:

Fine Art Auction, International Art Centre, 1971

Fine Paintings & Watercolours, International Art Centre March 1988

National Treasures Art Auction, International Art Centre, March 1993

Private Collection, Auckland

Charles Decimus Barraud was a New Zealand pharmacist and artist born in Camberwell, Surrey, England 1822.

He emigrated with his family to New Zealand, arriving in Wellington in August 1849. His wife was a cousin of Judge Henry Samuel Chapman, and it was Chapman who encouraged the emigration, providing the Barrauds with a cottage until their own house had been built.

From 1850 onwards Barraud won recognition for his landscapes which are of considerable historical value. He painted portraits of the Maori chiefs Honiana Te Puni-kokopu and Te Rangihaeata. Barraud's 1853, Baptism of the Maori chief Te Puni in Otaki Church is held in the National Library of Australia, Canberra.

Mt Earnslaw and Lake Wakatipu is one of Charles Decimus Barraud's finest watercolours and has been held in a private collection since it's acquisition from International Art Centre in 1993. When auctioned in 1971, Mt Earnslaw and Lake Wakatipu fetched a record for the artist's work, achieving the highest price for a 19th Century New Zealand watercolour. Seventeen years later the painting again made headlines when it fetched a record $112,000 at International Art Centre's March 1988 auction. In 2003 International Art Centre sold Barraud's View of Wellington for $225,000, a record which still stands.