Dunedin from Maclaggan Street, Otago: Taken from My Lodgings, Clifton Villa

This is one of a pair of highly competent and specifically titled watercolours by Richard Seymour Kelly. They were no doubt painted while he was awaiting transport from Ōtepoti to Ōtautahi. Like a number of colonial artists, Kelly was in fact an engineer with an artistic bent. His careful watercolours were primarily made to record scenes from his own daily life and surroundings rather than to give expression to an artistic vision. They show an understanding of and interest in precise landscape detail and therefore are a valuable record.