Artwork

This album contains selected watercolours and sketches from the Macmillan Brown Library collection. It shows the integration of art and life from the colourful imaginings of the Acland girls to landscapes which reflect the Acland homestead and its surrounds.

Emily Weddell Acland (nee Harper)(1830-1905) was born in England, the eldest daughter of Reverend H.J.C. Harper. The family arrived in Canterbury in 1856 on board the Egmont, after Reverend Harper's appointment as the first Bishop of Christchurch. Emily married J.B.A. Acland of Mt Peel Station; at the same ceremony her sister Sarah married Percy Cox.

Elizabeth Dyke Dunn (nee Acland), known as Bessie, (1870–1960) was born in Canterbury. She was the daughter of John Barton Arundel Acland and his wife, the painter Emily Acland. In 1896 she married painter Charles Arthur Dunn. The couple spent much time at the Aclands' station at Mt Peel but later went to live in the U.S.A. After her marriage, she painted as Bessie Dunn and signed her paintings B.D.

The Acland collection contains over 160 works by various members of the Acland family, including Emily, Bessie, Mary and Agnes. In ‘White Camelias,’ Pamela Gerrish Nunn noted that in the colonial era it was common to see female members of families pursuing fine arts together: the Acland family is a good example of this. At the time these were created, Canterbury art societies and the ranks of professional artists were dominated by men. In the face of this, painting together became not only a way for women to record their lives for friends and family, but also helped them to form a community of support for their creative endeavours.

The Harper family motto is 'Coelum non anumum mutant, qui trans mare currunt', which roughly translated means 'Those who roam across the seas change their sky not their hearts'. These landscapes from the Acland collection certainly demonstrate the motto well, as the somewhat romanticised views are not always totally accurate representations of the New Zealand countryside.