Painting the Frontier: The Art of New Zealand's Pioneers

David Bateman, Auckland, 2009. Good used condition with dust jacket. Some peeling inside cover.

We are familiar with the commissioned works of official artists documenting their first impressions of their new land and new co-inhabitants. But less well-known are the personal sketches and paintings created by amateur artists. Much of their work was collected by Alexander Turnbull and this book presents fascinating images of NZ art from the time of Cook to the beginning of the twentieth century. Painting the Frontier includes over 100 paintings specifically chosen to reflect aspects of people in early NZ. The pictures are accompanied by fascinating text from historian David Filer, which provides a very pictorial take on New Zealand's colonial past.