No 1 View of Parnell and Auckland taken from the top of Mt Eden

Although not much is yet known about Edward Harker, newspapers indicate that an ‘Edward Harker’ was a member of the Auckland Permanent Co-operative Building Society and the Auckland Choral Society. Harker’s hard outlines and flat blocks of colour schematise the central and northern Auckland landscape into a series of geometric shapes and luminous planes. He produced a slightly larger version of this view, which is now in the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s collection. The two works are almost identical except for one notable alteration: in this watercolour Harker has omitted a section of the landscape that can be seen in the left-hand side of the Museum’s work. This change gives this watercolour a more symmetrical, balanced composition. Located at the centre, North Head is flanked by a series of lyrical, undulating hills, creating a vision of Auckland that is both vibrant and harmonious.

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