Twin Peaks

We are seeing a lot of mid to late nineteenth century painting in the museums in California. It brings to mind the exhibition Pacific Parallels that we helped research for our friend Charles Eldredge who is Hall Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas. Charlie was struck by the parallels between explorer and colonial painting in the US and New Zealand and put together a great exhibition that toured the United States in 1991. Which leads us to a parallel of our own. This one between the painting on the right by an unknown artist on whalebone that we found in a Wellington junk shop and Charles Heaphy’s painting Mt Taranaki on the left.