Samuel Charles Brees

Once in a while you come across something in an op shop that takes your breath away.
For Deb, that day was the sight of two prints by very early settlers of early scenes of Wellington and she couldn’t resist them.
Both originals were done in the 1840s and the prints themselves are 50 years old.
So we are going to bring you the story of each one.
The first print is of the Petone foreshore about 1842, with two men bringing ashore a boat while a Māori man and a child watch on. There are no buildings, just the shore and the view across the harbour.
It was done by a man who wasn’t intended to be an artist.
Samuel Charles Brees was born about 1809 and little is known about his parentage or his early life.
By the mid 1820’s he was an apprentice to an architect in London then later trained as a civil engineer and moved on to being a railway engineer.
He painted and drew constantly and between 1832 and 1837 he had several landscapes exhibited.
In 1841 he signed on with the New Zealand Company for three years as a surveyor and civil engineer.
He, his wife Ann (nee Taylor) and their three children boarded the Brougham to New Zealand.
They settled in Wellington and Brees began surveying, laying out the Karori Rd and the hills around Wellington harbour.
He travelled a lot - there was no way to survey without going out and looking. In 1843 he led an exploratory trip through Upper Hutt and the Remutakas. He laid out preliminary suburbs in both areas.
Many of the sketches he did on his trips were the first European pictures of the areas.
But by 1844 the New Zealand Company was no longer able to pay him and he had more and more spare time to paint.
Eventually he and his family headed back to England and he took with him a portfolio of the scenes he had done.
He published Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand in 1847, all of North Island scenes. His pretty scenes did much to attract people to New Zealand.
Brees died on a voyage to London on board La Hogue from Sydney.​