Mount Sefton lies in the Mount Cook region of the Southern Alps and Foliage Hill is a short walk from the Mount Cook village where Charles Worsley would have stayed while visiting the region in 1902. He painted many New Zealand scenes such as this. Worsley had an academic style, applying his watercolours with careful precision. The tight brushwork he used in the foreground captures details of the rocks and bush, while he used broader washes to create atmospheric cloud effects around the mountain. Worsley was born in Devon and studied art in London, Antwerp and Paris. He settled in London and began exhibiting at the Royal Institute for British Artists in 1887, then at the Royal Academy in 1889. His wife Beatrice suffered from asthma and in 1896 they left England, arriving in New Zealand in 1898. They lived in a number of places, including Christchurch, before returning to Britain in 1920.