Thames (NZ): Early Painting by Liardet

A beautiful early painting of the Parawai to Te Aroha landscape. Originally painted by Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet, (1799-1878) and later copied by  Nora Anderson 1901. Liardet was the first European settler at Port Melbourne (Sandhurst), Australia in 1839.

Source: Ref: C-126-006. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22333282

Description: View from Mt Pukekawa of the embuchure and meandering of the River Thames to Mt Aroha (or M[oun]t of Love) with Te Karapoti Pahus Kainga in the foreground. Parawai on the Kawaeranga River.

Further details supplied:
Extensive view framed by tree ferns and flax in the foreground, looking down unto a small river winding through cultivated fields and scattered houses, with the kainga mentioned in the title presumably the cluster of buildings to the right. There is a ridge of low hills beyond the near river valley then the extensive plain of the Waihou River, formerly called the Thames, with mountains in the distance.

The Thames River, named by Captain Cook, is now known by its original Maori name as the Waihou River. The "Kawaeranga" River is the Kauaerangi. Mt Pukekawa does not appear to be a name used in the area depicted any longer - the closest Pukekawa is some 50 kilometres to the west on the far side of the Waikato River.
On the verso is a pencil and faint watercolour drawing of a pair of pink dancing shoes and a fan.

Owned by Warren Sisarich, 1960s. Sold at Dunbar Sloanes, Wellington, to Dr Neville Hogg of Dargarville. Purchase by the Library from Dr Hogg at Webb's Auction, Auckland, August 1993.
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Obituary for W F E LIARDET:

Source: Colonist, Volume XX, Issue 2368, 30 March 1878, Page 6

Wikipedia Entry for W F E LIARDET
Liardet Family tree