https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Kennett_WatkinsKennett Watkins - Revision history2026-08-01T22:57:15ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Kennett_Watkins&diff=509240&oldid=prevAman Mehta at 10:37, 1 May 20262026-05-01T10:37:44Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|New Zealand painter (1847–1933)}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}<br />
{{Infobox artist<br />
|name = Kennett Watkins<br />
|birth_name = Charles Henry Kennett Watkins<br />
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1847|07|14|}}<br />
|birth_place = [[Ooty]], [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]<br />
|death_date = {{death date and age|1933|07|31|1847|07|14|df=y}}<br />
|death_place = [[Mercury Bay]], [[Waikato]], [[New Zealand]]<br />
|resting_place = Whitianga Public Cemetery<br />
|known_for = New Zealand landscape scenes<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Charles Henry Kennett Watkins''' (14 July 1847 – 31 July 1933) was a New Zealand artist who was known for his New Zealand landscape paintings. He also painted scenes from the [[New Zealand Wars]] as well as of Maori life and history.<br />
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==Biography==<br />
Charles Henry Kennett Watkins was born in [[Ooty|Ootacamund]], India to Major John Watkins of the Indian Army.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FG4K-TLZ|title=India Births and Baptisms, 1786 1947|website=www.familysearch.org}}</ref> After attending Wellington College and studying in Switzerland and France, Kennett immigrated to New Zealand at the age of twenty-seven where he first found work as a photographer before teaching in [[Russell, New Zealand|Russell]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-PlaNine-t1-body-d1-d1254.html|title=WATKINS, KENNETT (C. H. KENNETT WATKINS) 1847–1933 – NZETC|website=www.nzetc.org}}</ref> In 1876 he moved to Auckland where he found work as an art teacher, becoming the first and only headmaster of the Auckland Free School of Art.<ref>{{cite news | work=[[New Zealand Herald]] | title=Spectemur Agendo| url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18761009.2.10 | date=9 October 1876 | page=2 | access-date=29 October 2022}}</ref> The same year, he married Clara Eliza Alice Davis at [[Kerikeri]] and had four children. <br />
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His 1912 painting 'The legend of the voyage to New Zealand', a depiction of the arrival of the 'Great Fleet' of [[Māori migration canoes|migration canoes]] in 1350, played a role in mythologising the arrival of Māori in New Zealand. It was gifted to the [[Auckland Art Gallery]] in 1913.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Gift to the City: Mr Watkins' Fine Picture |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19130113.2.45 |access-date=17 February 2026 |work=Auckland Star |date=13 January 1913}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/11744/the-legend-of-the-voyage-to-new-zealand |website=Auckland Art Gallery |access-date=17 February 2026}}</ref><br />
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Kennett retired in 1915 and settled in the East Cape and later in [[Dannevirke]]. In 1931, he moved to [[Mercury Bay]]. He continued to paint in his retirement and died on 31 July 1933 in Mercury Bay. Survived by his wife and three children, he was buried at Whitianga Public Cemetery.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary: Mr. C. H. Kennett Watkins |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19330807.2.142 |access-date=17 February 2026 |work=New Zealand Herald |date=7 August 1933}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tcdc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=59f9c540c7e74cf1a3225dbe08d19cc8|title = Cemeteries Viewer – Thames-Coromandel District Council}}</ref><br />
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==Notable works==<br />
* ''Waikato River'', (oil on canvas, 1881)<br />
* ''The Haunt of the Moa, a scene in Puriri Forest'', (oil on canvas, 1885)<br />
* ''The Phantom Canoe: A Legend of Lake Tarawera'', (oil on canvas, 1888)<br />
* ''The blowing up of the Boyd'', (oil on canvas, 1889)<br />
* ''Arrival of Captain Cook; An incident in the Bay of Islands, 29 November 1769'', (oil on cardboard, 1890)<br />
* ''The Death of Von Tempsky at Te Ngutu o Te Manu'', (oil on canvas, 1893)<br />
* ''Departure of the six canoes from Raratonga for New Zealand'', (oil on canvas, 1906)<br />
* ''[[The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand]]'', (oil on canvas, 1912)<br />
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==Gallery==<br />
<gallery><br />
Wairoa, Lake Tarawera (48752869078).jpg|''Wairoa, Lake Tarawera'' (1877)<br />
The Pink Terraces of Rotomahana (48752340373).jpg|''The Pink Terraces of Rotomahana'' (1877)<br />
Kennett Watkins - Waikato River - Google Art Project.jpg|''Waikato River'' (1881)<br />
Kennett Watkins - The Haunt of the Moa, a scene in Puriri Forest - U-332 - Auckland Art Gallery.jpg|''The Haunt of the Moa'' (1885)<br />
Kennett Watkins - The Phantom Canoe- A Legend of Lake Tarawera - Google Art Project.jpg|''The Phantom Canoe: A Legend of Lake Tarawera'' (1888)<br />
Louis John Steele - Arrival of Captain Cook, An incident in the Bay of Islands, 29 November 1769 - 1988-35-2 - Auckland Art Gallery.jpg|''Arrival of Captain Cook; An incident in the Bay of Islands, 29 November 1769'' (1890)<br />
-Two takahe- (48753310077).jpg|Untitled painting of two [[takahē]] (1896)<br />
Kennett Watkins - Departure of the six canoes from Raratonga for New Zealand - U-26 - Auckland Art Gallery.jpg|''Departure of the six canoes from Raratonga for New Zealand'' (1906)<br />
Kennett Watkins - The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand - U-32 - Auckland Art Gallery.jpg|''The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand'' (1912)<br />
</gallery><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Kennett}}<br />
[[Category:1847 births]]<br />
[[Category:1933 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:New Zealand painters]]<br />
[[Category:Artists from Tamil Nadu]]<br />
[[Category:British people in British India]]<br />
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{{NewZealand-artist-stub}}</div>Aman Mehta