#MC34
Ca. 1911
Five loose watercolours, including one ca. 28x38 cm (11x15 in), one ca. 22,5x31,5 cm (8 ¾ x 12 ½ in), one ca. 18x25 cm (7x10 in), and two ca. 14x22,5 cm (5 ½ x 8 ¾ in). One watercolour is signed “L. Burton” in the right lower corner; three watercolours with period pencil captions on verso (one identifies “Lucy Burton” as the artist). One watercolour with needle holes in the corners after being mounted, several with old mount residue on verso, otherwise a very good collection of bright and sound watercolours.
Attractive collection of five watercolour views of Samoa, then a German colony, created by one “Lucy Burton” – possibly, a relative of Rev. John Wear Burton (1875-1970), a noted Methodist minister from New Zealand, who served as a missionary to the East Indian settlers on Fiji in 1902-1911. According to the pencil captions on verso, the drawings were made in August 1911.
The watercolours include a view of Apia harbour with the famous wreck of S.M.S. “Adler” – a German cruiser which was lost in the hurricane on March 16, 1889, when six German and U.S. naval ships refused to leave the harbour despite the approaching storm during the political standoff of the Samoan crisis. There is also a picturesque scene of a night volcanic eruption on Savaii Island – possibly, on Mount Matavanu, which actively erupted in 1905-1911. The other three watercolours are idyllic views of Samoan villages with traditional thatched-roof houses, drying cloth and figures of native inhabitants. Overall a nice collection of beautiful watercolours of Samoa. A list of pencil captions on verso: Apia, Samoa, August 1, 1911; Apia, Samoa, August 2, 1911; The treacherous reef, Wreck of the Adler, by Lucy Burton.
John Wear Burton graduated from Prince Alfred Theological College (Auckland), Canterbury College (University of New Zealand), and the University of Melbourne. He served as a missionary in Fiji (1902-1911), Conference Foreign Mission Secretary (1914-24), Chief Religious Work Director with the Australian Y.M.C.A. (1918-1920), editor of “Missionary Review” (since 1922), President of the Methodist Conference of New South Wales, &c. (see more: Who is Who in Australia, 1938, pp. 103-104; Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 7, 1979).
