Baker, William George 1864-1929 :Otira Gorge [1912?]

A steep valley with bush-clad hills, dropping to a river with a bridge in the middle distance and a road to the left, with a carriage being pulled by four horses. There are telegraph poles beside the road and the rata is in flower on the hills.

The horse-drawn carriage is very small relative to other features in the foreground.

Inscriptions: Recto - bottom left - Otira Gorge. W.G.Baker [in red-brown brushpoint]

Quantity: 1 oil(s).

Physical Description: Oil on canvas 595 x 900 mm (sight)

Provenance: According to the donor the artist "painted six canvases of scenes in New Zealand which were to grace a pavilion in an exhibition due to be held at the opening of the Panama Canal. They were painted about 1912, but due to the commencement of the 1914-1918 War the exhibition was never held. The pictures were then bought by a Mr Cooper, a director of the Wellington Meat Export Co., who retained one, giving the other five to the Bristol and Dominions Producers Company ... The Company went into liquidation in 1920 and my father, who was one of the Bristol directors - other Directors were situated in New Zealand and Australia - bought the five paintings which were dispersed following his death. I acquired "Otira Gorge" amd "Dusky Sound" is in the possession of my sister. Three of the paintings have disappeared."