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George O'Brien (1821-1888) was an engineer of aristocratic background who turned to art in 19th century Australasia, dying in poverty but leaving a body of remarkable work. Australasia is a Region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring Islands in the Pacific

Biography

While many people called 'O'Brien' like to fancy they are descended from the kings of Ireland the colonial artist really was. Born at Dromoland Castle County Clare, Ireland in 1821 he was the fifth son of Admiral Robert O'Brien, a direct descendant of Murrough O'Brien, 57th King of Thomond, and of Brian Boroimhe, Monarch of Ireland (?-1014). Dromoland Castle is a Castle, now a luxury hotel with Golf course, located near Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare, Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Brian mac Cennétig, called Brian Bóruma, ( c 941&ndash23 April 1014 (Brian Boru Brian Bóraimhe was an Irish king who ended the centuries-long domination George O'Brien was a first cousin of William Smith O'Brien (1803-1864) deported to Tasmania for his part in the 1848 'Young Ireland' uprising, and a cousin too of James Fitzgerald, at one time Superintendent of the Canterbury Province in New Zealand. William Smith O'Brien ( 17 October 1803 &ndash 18 June 1864) was an Irish Nationalist and Member of Parliament (MP Tasmania is an Australian island and state of the same name It is located south of the eastern side of the Continent, being separated from it by Bass James FitzGerald may refer to James FitzGerald James FitzMaurice FitzGerald James Newbury FitzGerald, American bishop (For the current top-level subdivision of Canterbury in New Zealand see Canterbury New Zealand) The Canterbury Province was a province of New Zealand New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island

Despite these distinguished connections the family was not well-heeled. Young George O'Brien may have been trained by a brother as a civil engineer. His parents died when he was young and it seems that by a very early age he was in Melbourne, Australia where views of the town dated 1839 and 1840 survive in the collection of the state library. Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. It seems he left soon afterwards but was back by 1850 arriving from London on the Midlothian. He worked as a draughtsman in the surveyor's office and in 1853 married Jane Mashford at St. James' church Melbourne. He was active in the Victoria Fine Arts Society and by 1854 was advertising his services as an architect and surveyor. He exhibited paintings in 1856 and 1858 and nine signed and dated watercolours of St. Kilda and nearby places in Melbourne are recorded.

By December of 1863 O'Brien was living at Duncan Street in Dunedin New Zealand no doubt attracted by the prosperity induced by the Otago gold rushes. Dunedin (dəˈneɪdɪn) Ōtepoti in Maori is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the region of New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The Central Otago Gold Rush (often simply called the Otago gold rush) was a Gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand He worked as a civil engineer; was employed at times by the Town Board and supplied architectural perspectives of buildings designed by several Dunedin firms. He seems to have had more than a nodding acquaintance with R.A. Lawson. Robert Arthur Lawson ( 1 January 1833 &ndash 3 December 1902) was one of New Zealand 's most eminent 19th century architects A number of O'Brien's watercolours were exhibited in the 1865 Dunedin Industrial Exhibition. He associated with W.M. Hodgkins, a lawyer and aspiring watercolour painter who became very influential in Dunedin's art world. William Mathew Hodgkins (1833 - 1898 was a 19th century New Zealand painter O'Brien may have given Hodgkins some instruction. O'Brien's manner showed his background in measured draughtsmanship but also represented a kind of neo-classical painting. In the colonial context he was unusual in taking buildings and townscape as his subject matter. In 1876 he attended a meeting of the Otago Art Society and was well-represented in that body's inaugural annual exhibition held later that year. His paintings were ill-received by one critic, probably Thomas Bracken, which represents the arrival in New Zealand of the new taste for Turneresque Romantic landscape and the beginning of the demise of O'Brien's more old-fashioned neo-classicism. Thomas Bracken ( 21 December 1843 – 16 February 1898) was a noted late 19th century poet Nevertheless, when O'Brien's wife died in 1879, leaving him with five daughters to raise, he embarked on a career as a professional artist.

He was versatile and energetic travelling around southern New Zealand, but also a heavy drinker and immensely fat. His habits were bohemian and eventually his oldest daughter, now married, removed her younger siblings while O'Brien continued lodging with a sailor and his wife in a poor part of the city. He spent a year in Auckland in 1887 but returned to Dunedin where he died on the 30th of August 1888. The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country His landlady inherited his residual collection and he was interred in a then unmarked grave in the northern cemetery.

Legacy

Since his death O'Brien's reputation has improved. Hailed by people like Rodney Kennedy and Colin McCahon as a topographer untouched by artistic fashion he is not that but a highly able neo-classical painter with a most unusual urban vision. Colin John McCahon ( August 1, 1919, Timaru, New Zealand - May 27, 1987, Auckland) was a prominent

The late 20th century saw a number of exhibitions toured around the country and new studies of his work. His 'Designs of R. A. Lawson', now in the Otago Settlers Museum Dunedin, is often reproduced and his 'Dunedin from the Junction' 1869, in the same repository, is well known. The Otago Settlers Museum is a regional history Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand covering the territory of the old Otago Province, New Zealand His 'Water of Leith Brewery' of about 1865 (also in the Otago Settlers Museum) is an excellent example of his urban vision while 'Lawyer's Head from Forbury Head. . . ' of 1870, in the collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery represents his pure landscape work somewhere near its best. The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. He is represented in the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne, and in all the major New Zealand public collections, but most notably in the Otago Settlers Museum and the Hocken Collections, Dunedin. The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne Australia. The Hocken Library (also known by its Southern Māori name of Te Uare Taoka o Hākena) is a research library and historical archive based in the New Zealand

References

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