Ffitch, Henry, 1840?-1918 :Christchurch 1851. [1850s or 1860s?].

Shows a view over the Avon River towards the Port Hills, with the houses of Dr Alfred Barker, Mr Guise Brittan and the Lands Office all on Oxford Terrace, close to the Worcester Street Bridge. Dr Barker's house is shown tarred. There is a flag flying outside the Lands Office. A more distant building is the Lyttelton Hotel. A bullock team waits by the riverside, and there is a horse and rider further away on Oxford Terrace. The near side of the river has flax, and a cabbage tree at the right.

The view is similar to an original sketch by Dr A C Barker done in 1851, a version of which was reproduced in the Illustrated London news, volume 22, no 616 (9 April 1853), page 268.

As the artist is thought to have been only 11-12 years old in 1851, the painting is probably done from memory, or copied from one of Dr A C Barker's sketches, or a reproduction of one of Barker's sketches in the Illustrated London news.

There is another version of a very similar view by Ffitch or Fitch, in the Canterbury Museum, also an oil painting. It includes a tent, and has no horse.

Quantity: 1 oil(s).

Physical Description: Oil on canvas, 500 x 330 mm.

Provenance: Previously the work had been in a farmhouse on the West Coast.