JEWELLERY, DECORATIVE & FINE ARTS AUCTION Tuesday, 15 June 2021 - 10:00 AM start
CATALOGUE CORRECTION: The artist is Cprl. Ernest Michael Casey NZEF (1889-1918) [rather than Ethel Marian Sumner Casey]
Lot Details
T.S.S. Maunganui off the coast, watercolour, signed and dated 1916. 110 x 195mm NOTE: In 1914 the Maunganui was requisitioned by the New Zealand Government then converted to carry troops, In October 1914 the first convoy carrying New Zealand troops to Egypt departed from Wellington. Maunganui carried elements of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Maunganui made eleven voyages from New Zealand with troops, as well as being used to carry British troops to the Mediterranean and Near East. On January 8 1916 she embarked NZ troops in Wellington and in February disembarked them at Port Suez. The artist Corporal Ernest Michael Casey, Canterbury Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Service No. 21/43 was a member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Born in Wellington and educated at St Patrick’s College. After passing the Civil Service examinations he became a cadet in the Department of Labour. He was a gifted young artist with a passion for meticulous watercolours of marine shipping and naval battles. He enlisted in November 1915 with the 11th Reinforcements army pay department and embarked for Suez in April 1916. He served in France where he was wounded at the Battle of Messines. He was declared medically unfit and returned to New Zealand dying at St Patrick College’s hospital during the 1918 influenza epidemic.
