Thomas Cane
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1830, d.1905
Little River
- 1883
- Watercolour
- Gift of Miss Dorothy Williams, 1965
- 375 x 525mm
- 69/224
- View on google maps
Tags: animals, bridges (built works), hills, landscapes (representations), natural landscapes, people (agents), rivers, rock, trees
Large stands of giant tōtara once stood at Wairewa Little River on Horomaka Banks Peninsula. There was something of a boom in forestry at Wairewa during the 1860s and 1870s and most of this forest was felled; Thomas Cane’s watercolour of the region in 1883 hints at the transformation to pasture. The gaps in the forest expose the landscape beyond, while the shift to a pastural landscape is signalled by fences and cattle standing in the Ōkiri stream. This loss of habitat had a significant effect throughout Horomaka and led to a dramatic decline in the populations of native birds.
Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, 10 June – 22 October 2023
Exhibition History
This painting of Little River, on Banks Peninsula, was made at a time when stands of native bush still survived in the district, though large tracts were fast disappearing due to milling. Thomas Cane’s daughter and son-in-law lived in Akaroa. The Peninsula was a favourite painting location for him and he completed many watercolours of the area. Cane was an architect but he was also an enthusiastic spare time painter and exhibited regularly until 1900. Because of his training, Cane took meticulous care in his watercolour paintings. Like many, Little River is somewhat picturesque but shows a good sense of the region’s landscape. Cane was born in Brighton, England, and trained as an architect under Gilbert Scott. He arrived in Christchurch in 1874 and was Canterbury Provincial Architect from 1875 until the abolition of Provinces in 1876, when he went into private practice. Cane exhibited at the first Canterbury Society of Arts Annual exhibition in 1881 and continued to exhibit with the Society until 1900. (Label date unknown)
Related
Notes
Little River by Thomas Cane
This article first appeared as 'Wind of change' in The Press on 19 October 2012.
Notes
Port Lyttelton, N.Z., March 9, 1874, from Nature by Thomas Cane
This article first appeared in The Press on 27 July 2005
2005 marks the centennial of the death of one of Canterbury's notable Victorian watercolourists and architects, Thomas Cane (1830 - 1905). Cane was born in Brighton, Sussex and prior to his arrival to Canterbury in 1873 he had trained as an architect and quantity surveyor under the firm of Banks and Barry. He was also employed by one of the masters of the Victorian Gothic Revival architectural style, Sir Gilbert Scott, who designed Christchurch's Anglican Cathedral. Cane travelled widely throughout Europe on several occasions visiting France, Germany, Belgium and Holland with the direct purpose of studying medieval architecture. He is likely to have developed his skills as a watercolourist while working as a architect, which would have required producing detailed sketches of building designs.