Story: Ideas in New Zealand

'Mr Brees' cottage in Hawkestone Street', 1844

'Mr Brees' cottage in Hawkestone Street', 1844

Samuel Brees's watercolour of his cottage in Wellington is a good expression of the ideal which drove settlers to New Zealand and which they endeavoured to protect once they had arrived. It is a 'middle landscape', free both of the crowded streets of the city and the uncouth wildness of the bush. Instead we see comfortable houses and gardens for families set amid a pastoral landscape.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: B-031-010
Watercolour by Samuel Charles Brees

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Ideas in New Zealand - Wakefield and the ‘better Britain’', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/artwork/45482/mr-brees-cottage-in-hawkestone-street-1844 (accessed 25 April 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 22 Oct 2014