After arriving in New Zealand in 1860, J. B. C. (John) Hoyte only stayed until 1879, mostly supporting himself by teaching art in Auckland. However, Hoyte was widely recognised for his contribution to New Zealand painting, partly because he helped organise the Auckland Society of Arts. Unlike John Gully, who always aspired to the sublime, Hoyte tended towards a gentle picturesque approach. Although this image of the White Terraces of Lake Tarawera had as its subject one of the country's most dramatic landscapes, the painting is soft and restrained and accords with the expected conventions of dark foliage in the foreground and a golden glow in the distance. He painted this watercolour in 1890, after he had moved to Australia and after the terraces had been destroyed by the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886.