PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Auckland
Purchased from International Art Centre, 1971

Alfred Sharpe is renowned as an accomplished watercolourist whose contribution to New Zealand landscape painting provides a valuable insight into colonial art of the nineteenth century. On his emigration from his English birthplace, Sharpe became actively involved in the establishment of various galleries and art unions within Auckland, and wasted no time in painting landscapes in and around the region. While critics were frequently dismissive of his work, Sharpe persisted, exhibiting extensively from the 1870s to the 1890s. He worked as an architectural draughtsman and producing in the vicinity of 100 to 150 paintings throughout his career in New Zealand, of which fewer than 100 survive today. Aside from his art, Sharpe was a keen writer and commentator, often utilising newspaper columns to communicate his views on a variety of topical issues as well as on the nature and theory of art. He submitted essays to the New Zealand Herald which were published weekly as Hints for Landscape Students in Watercolour and provide valuable information on Sharpe's own watercolour production and technique. Stylistically his work is indebted to the pre-Raphaelite landscapes he had encountered in England during the 1850s which features sharp focus, vibrant colour and high viewpoints.