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. The immense scale of this painting shows Worsley’s technical virtuosity with his favourite medium of watercolour. His success was marked in 1923 when Queen Mary bought one of his watercolours for the Royal Collection. Born in Devon, Worsley 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 so 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.