Form is developed by means of light and shade; without these every object would appear flat.
Mrs (Mary P.) Merrifield, Handbook of Light and Shade, 1855
English art critic John Berger described a drawing as 'an autobiographical record of one's discovery of an event—seen, remembered or imagined'.1 Drawing has also been credited with being the most direct and unmediated method of catching the creative process as it happened.2 It is probably the first of these definitions that was most applicable when the practice was brought to New Zealand. During the first few decades of organised settlement from Europe, the ranks of resident artists were dominated by amateurs who were frequently explorers, surveyors and soldiers. Drawing was an essential skill, for prior to the availability of the 'pencil of nature'—the camera—it was important to be able to quickly and economically capture the sense of a landscape, a natural feature or perhaps an enemy position.
With New Zealand's growing population came an increasing interest in art, and painters such as John Barr Clark Hoyte and John Gully took pupils and gave classes in basic skills.3 The demand for better educational facilities led to the founding of the colony's first art school in 1870, in Dunedin, reflecting awareness of the value being placed on drawing and the growing number of design schools in England and Scotland.4 New Zealand's other main centres followed Dunedin's lead a decade or so later; the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts was founded in 1882, the Wellington School of Design in 1885 and the Elam School of Art and Design in Auckland in 1889. In all four schools drawing was a fundamental part of the course, and this article will focus on how it has been taught over the last century and a half at Dunedin and Auckland.
The founding head of this country's first art school was 26-year-old David Con Hutton from Scotland, where he had taught at the Perth School of Art. His official title was Drawing Master, and he arrived in Dunedin in early February 1870 along with eleven, various hands, and the . A few months later Hutton took delivery of another essential means of imparting an art education, lithographed copies of works by Turner and 'other eminent artists'.
