[Ashworth, Edward] 1814-1896 :[Auckland looking North. 1843?]

Auckland City from the hills behind the city, with a flax bush to the right and three Maori viewing the scene from the fern on the left. A stream in the middle ground (now the site of Queen Street) leads down to the town with Government House shown in the fenced area in the centre right and St Paul's Church silhouetted against Mt Victoria across the harbour. The cluster of buildings closest to the viewer at the lowest point in the valley is the Queen Street gaol, excavated in 1987 (see TL13/14/1 8/3/91). Rangitoto is shown in the background and there are several ships in the harbour. The scene is shown at sunset.

Exhibited at 'The world was all before me; journals and watercolours of Edward Ashworth from the collections of Alexander Turnbull Library', Curator was Jill Trevelyan. The exhibition title is taken from Ashworth's journal where he misquotes from John Milton's poem "Paradise Lost": "The world was all before me / where to choose my place of rest". At the National Library Gallery, 27 April - 29 July 2001.

A preliminary pencil drawing for this watercolour is held at A-208-018. The title of the watercolour is taken from the title of the pencil drawing, which shows St Paul's without its tower, although a tentative tower is lightly sketched in. The drawing would be likely to have been executed during 1843 and no later than January 1844, when Ashworth departed New Zealand for Hong Kong. The watercolour may have been completed while Ashworth was in New Zealand, with the putative tower added; or he may have worked from his pencil sketch at a slightly later date. Several of the sketches in the Hobson album were completed after Mrs Hobson left New Zealand in 1843.

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Pencil and watercolour 242 x 365 mm

Provenance: The album was passed by Eliza Hobson to her daughter, Eliza, Lady Rendel.

Transfers: Originally part of Mrs Hobson's album (E-216-f)..

Processing information: One of several pages removed from the Hobson album for conservation reasons, 1990. This page was too large for the album and was becoming damaged around the edges. It was formerly located on p. 107 of the album.