East Coast Artist

Charles Henry Kennett Watkins, born in India in 1847, was one of the most gifted of early New Zealand artists. An arts master at schools in the Auckland district, he lived for some time at Ruatoria and near Tiniroto after retiring. His paintings of early Maori life are regarded as classics of their kind. Two of these (reproduced on this page) were hung in a collection at the Gisborne Art Gallery recently and proved of so much interest to Dominion Museum authorities that photographic copies were asked for so that the authentic Maori customs depicted could be preserved there.

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A Maori village at Taupe.

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Maori girls swinging over river on ropes.

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The artist.