PROVENANCE
Paul & Kerry Barber Collection Two Day National Art Auction, Dunbar Sloane 08/11/1995

From a vantage point on The Terrace, overlooking Ghuznee Street and all the way across to Oriental Bay, this work portrays Wellington's clear, strong colours which, in the artist's own words, were waiting to be put on canvas. The spire of Wellington's St Peter's Church is outlined against surrounding buildings, and rooftops populate the view. Page also painted a similar view of St Peter's Church in 1952, which was exhibited at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts retrospective in 1970.

This scene is busy without being frenetic; charged with the promise of life. Because Page has prioritised breadth of view, the perspective is sweeping and the presence of individuals is not captured. Nevertheless, it captures the energy of civilisation, and the presence of Wellingtonians is suggested from within the walls of buildings; in the intersections of streets.

When Frederick Page was appointed to establish the music department at Victoria University of Wellington in 1945, Evelyn and the family followed him north. After struggling to find a home in the city, they eventually rented in Pukerua Bay. Evelyn used to drive into the city to visit Frederick and to paint, travelling down from the coast with the observational curiosity of a visual anthropologist. As she preferred to paint directly from real life, Page needed to devise a way of painting in the middle of an inner-city street. She obtained permission from the Public Services Commission (to avoid any trouble from parking wardens), and set up a studio in her car.

From this compact new workspace, Page cemented a new stage in her career, completing works such as St Peter's Church and Wellington Harbour, and distancing herself from the label of landscape painter. She no longer saw the appeal in painting unpopulated, 'unloved' landscapes, and instead preferred to capture the vibrancy and bustle of human existence.

Evelyn Page painted this scene twice. An almost identical version is held in the collection of Victoria University in Wellington. That work entitled St Peter's Church and Wellington is illustrated p. 33, plate 12, Evelyn Page, Seven Decades, Janet Paul and Neil Roberts, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Bridget Williams Books, 1986.