On 20 April 1883 James Crowe Richmond’s daughter made the following entry in her diary: ‘Father is going for a month sketching with Mr [John] Gully … They will start in about a week and go across the bay to Totaranui, to a place called Takaka in the mountains by the sea.’ This was just one of many such sketching expeditions that these two artists made together in the 1880s. A gifted amateur, Richmond brought the accuracy and attention to detail he learned while training as a civil engineer to his skills as a watercolourist. Born in London, Richmond emigrated to New Zealand in 1850. To escape the Land Wars in Taranaki, Richmond moved to Nelson in 1862 where he became Commissioner of Crown Lands. Later he became an important figure in the Cabinet and Minister of Native Affairs.