Charles Blomfield

Charles Blomfield  1848-1926

The White Terraces. Oil on Canvas. 1901

Charles Blomfield “The artist of the Terraces” (Conly, G 1985) was born in Holborn in London in 1848 and in 1862 he immigrated with his family to New Zealand. He left London on a ship called the Gertrude and arrived five months later in Auckland where he and his family settled.

Initially Charles found employment as a house painter and interior decorator and was taught the techniques of the trade, including the mixing of paint for decorative purposes. He developed his own business to specialize in this work and had success in the field and he had no other formal art training.

Auckland was soon to be enveloped by economic depression and unemployment and Charles’ parents moved the family to Thames. It was here that Charles found employment in the building trade as many people were attracted to the area, (including William Crawford), to hunt for gold and the demand for housing was high (Williams M. 2010).

It was in the Thames surroundings that Blomfield became so attracted to painting native bush and local scenery. Regardless of his lack of formal art training he soon realized his own talent and quickly advanced his technique, mastering landscape painting. He started to travel seeking scenery from which to compose works and he painted ‘plein air’, literally sketching and using oil paints on canvas in the open at the site of interest (this version of White Terraces however is a studio work due to its date of 1901). He carried all his painting equipment with him and this activity became his passion.

When he returned to Auckland and he married Ellen Wild in a Baptist chapel in Wellesley Street in 1874 and they set up home in Ponsonby, where they raised seven children. While Ellen remained at home raising the children he continued to travel the country on painting expeditions (Williams M. 2010) The most usual way to travel to the Pink and White Terraces was from Auckland by steamers of the Union Steam Ship Co. to Tauranga, and then by horse drawn stage-coach between Tauranga and Rotorua via Maketu (Conly, G 1985) The lakes in the Rotorua and Tarawera region became fascinating to Blomfield and paintings of Rotomahama and the Pink and White Terraces were to become his trademark works.

According to his grand-daughter the writer Muriel Williams, 

“Blomfield continued to travel throughout New Zealand painting pictures of mountains, rivers, lakes and cloud effects, but his greatest love remained the native bush, of which he wrote enthusiastically in his diary. He had received some musical tuition on the voyage from England, and supported himself by working as a music teacher and singing inspector in schools, as well as by the sale of paintings.” (Williams,2010, para. 8)

On several of his expeditions he camped at Lake Rotomahana where he studied the Pink and White Terraces. Fascinated by the spectacle and their delicate beauty he made arrangements with local Tangata Whenua in 1884, to pay a considerable fee to enable him to spend approximately six weeks sketching and painting at the site (Williams M. 2010).

The eruption of Mount Tarawera took place early on the morning of 10 June 1886 and this is when the Pink and White Terraces were destroyed (Conly, G 1985).

Blomfield’s original oil paintings quickly became unique after the eruption of Mount Tarawera and Blomfield was devastated at the destruction of the Eighth Wonder the Pink and White Terraces. He refused to sell the oil paintings but he made many reproductions of them of which he sold many. The paintings became immensely collectable and valuable to him and to the collectors of the period as they are today.  It is for these works that he has become renowned and his studies of the Terraces have given insight to many generations since, their spectacular natural beauty.

This Charles Blomfield painting “The White Terraces” part of the Museum collection was the inspiration behind this exhibition and is on long term loan to the museum. Unlike William Crawford and Kennet Watkins, Blomfield did not have connections with Te Tairawhiti and did not live in the region at all.

Muriel Williams. 'Blomfield, Charles - Biography', from the Dictionary of New Zealand

Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1-Sep-10 
URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/2b28/1

Conly. G. (1985). Tarawera: The Destruction of the Pink and white Terraces. Wellington: Grantham House Publishing.