Petrus Van der Velden

A wreath will be laid on the grave of one of New Zealand's early landscape painters, Petrus Van der Velden, making a hundred years since his death. The grave in Waikaraka Cemetery in Auckland was unmarked until the 1970s when his biographer Rodney Wilson arranged for a headstone. Van der Velden was born in Rotterdam on 5 May 1837 and arrived at Lyttelton, New Zealand on 21 June 1890. His best known works are his paintings of the Otira Gorge. Several of Van der Velden's paintings are on display at Te Papa, ahead of an upcoming symposium about his life and work. Te Papa's Head of Arts & Visual Culture, Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki talks about the artist's life and legacy.