New Zealand coastal landscape (Te Araroa, Eastland)

Allom was the son of the English artist Thomas Allom (who had worked up Heaphy's New Zealand views for publication) and arrived in New Zealand in 1842 as a survey cadet, working mainly in Wellington, the Wairarapa district and Otago before returning to England in 1848. The present work presumably relates to a series of views of the coast he undertook as a survey cadet. He returned to New Zealand in 1861 as manager and agent of the Great Barrier Land, Harbour and Mining Company. Further watercolours are recorded in the Bett Collection, Nelson (see U. Platts, Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists, A Guide & Handbook, Christchurch, 1980, p.21.)