Heaphy, Charles 1820-1881 :View of a part of the town of Wellington, New Zealand, looking towards the south east, comprising about one-third of the water-frontage [drawn] in September 1841 by C Heaphy, Draftsman to the New Zealand Company

View from Clay Point hill above the junction of modern Willis St and Lambton Quay. The beach in the foreground is lower Willis Street, while upper Willis Street passes up the rise on the far right. The beach in the background is modern Mercer and Wakefield Streets. Cows, goats, two Maori canoes, a couple on horseback and Bethune & Hunter's Stores are in the foreground, with a jetty and sailing ships in the harbour. Further jetties and public and private buildings are in the background on Te Aro Flat. The most prominent building along the waterfront, with a Grecian-style frontage, is the Exchange Building. Mounts Cook, Albert and Victoria are indicated in the skyline above their relevant peaks.

For a key to the identity of individual buildings, see negative 15576 1/2. T. M. Hocken's 'Key plan of Heaphy's View of a part of the town of Wellington ... 1885'. The original for this key is in the Hocken Library Pictures Collection.

This watercolour was the original for the lithograph of the same title, published in London in 1842. There were also later prints from the same stone produced during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See reference number C-026-002 for copies of the lithograph.

Reproduced by the Library in 1963 as one of the Queen's Prints, along with its companion view 'Thorndon Flat and part of the city of Wellington, 1841' and Heaphy's 'View of Nelson Haven', also dating from 1841.

Inscriptions: Recto - beneath image - title in pencil. This is not in Heaphy's hand. It has been taken from the title of the matching lithograph

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Watercolour 442 x 620 mm on sheet 518 x 698 mm

Provenance: Purchased in London in 1915 by Alexander Turnbull Library along with 114 other New Zealand Company drawings