JOHN BUCHANAN’S CONTRIBUTION TO PROVINCIAL ART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27086, 21 May 1949, Page 2

JOHN BUCHANAN’S CONTRIBUTION TO PROVINCIAL ART

Three sketch books recently added to the Otago Early Settlers’ Museum form a link with a man who enriched the knowledge of botany in this country, who made important gold discoveries in Otago before Gabriel Read set the province and the colony agog with his findings in the Tuapeka, and who painted a striking water-colour of Milord Sound. The books belonged to John Buchanan, a Dumbartonshire man, who arrived at Port Chalmers in 1849. The original of Buchanan’s famous painting, “ Milford Sound Looking North-west from Freshwater Basin,” is in the Hocken Library.

The three sketch books have been presented to the Early Settlers by Mr W. B. Anderson, of Dunedin, who was Buchanan’s friend. They contain many fine pencil sketches and water colours and are regarded by authorities as possessing considerable merit. The drawings and photographs of botanical specimens present proof of Buchanan’s industry in that field. Other sketch books exist, and it is understood that Buchanan’s work is represented in the Turnbull Library, Wellington. Among Buchanan’s drawings is a pencil sketch of the famous Milford water colour, which is in the Hocken collection, and another of Milford. The whereabouts of the other painting is a mystery.

the gold discoveries devolved on Gabriel Read some years afterwards. In his first report as commissioner of the golfields in 1862, Mr Vincent Pyke said, “referring to Buchanan's discoveries: l cannot but regard this as the first practical demonstration of the mineral wealth of Otago.”

In 1868, when the New Zealand Institute was established, Buchanan’s name was among those of the original founders. In 1885, after 23 years’ service under the Government, at the age of 66, Buchanan was retired on a small pension and came to spend his declining years in Otago. In the “ History of Otago,” Dr A. R McLintock says that Buchanan approached the problem of revealing the intrinsic structure of mountain or

John Buchanan was born at Levenside, Dumbartonshire, on October 13, 1819. On the banks of the Leven

print and dye works were the staple industries, and young Buchanan was apprenticed as a pattern designer. On the completion of his apprenticeship, Buchanan went to Glasgow.

fiord more as an unemotional scientist than as a romantic obsessed with the rich traditions of‘ the past. “This concentration on bare essentials,” writes the historian “ portrayed in an austere harmony of brown, greygreen and blue, resulted in a work of superlative merit—‘Milford Sound Looking North-west from Freshwater Basin.’ Though it possesses qualities which make it one of the few great landscape paintings the Otago century has produced, this water colour stands as aloof in its class as it does in appeal. Nothing since has ever quite approached it and Buchanan with this triumph reached the heights, for in his remaining work his limitations are more apparent than is his talent. . . In the history of provincial art Buchanan remains as detached a figure as the lone mountains he delineated in so unique a fashion.”

Botany had close affinities with Buchanan’s work as a pattern designer and, anxious to excel in his business, this became his favourite study—a study which he pursued avidly in Glasgow. During Buchanan’s stay in Glasgow, the Clyde was beginning to attract attention in the building of iron steamers, and to keep pace with the graceful lines of the hulls, the internal decorations had to receive every attention. Buchanan was employed in painting on glass noted scenes both on land and sea, as well as groups of flowers and plants and trees to be fixed in the panellings of the saloon and state rooms. When mechanical methods were invented, however, manual labour came to be superseded. Buchanan decided that his widening knowledge of botany should be enriched in a new and wider sphere. The flora of New Zealand had for some time been famous, and the wealth of research awaiting the enterprising botanist had been indicated by the illustrious men who had been early explorers Otago up to that time had been a comparatively unexplored region. Arrival at Port Chalmers Buchanan arrived at Port Chalmers by the ship Columbus in 1849. Buying a 10-acre section at the head of NorthEast Valley he set out to clear the bush. He still kept his interest in botany. After spending a period in the Australian goldfields, Buchanan returned to Dunedin. While he was helping to make a trigonometrical survey for the Provincial Government, reports of gold 'discoveries began to filter into town. A report came from the chief surveyor that Buchanan had in the Dunstan district unearthed gold which would prove remunerative. There was also a discovery in the Tuapeka stream reported by Buchanan. The discoverers had neither the time, the appliances nor the opportunity to prosecute their search to produce sufficient proof, and because of the apathy of others, the actual credit of