David John Payne

(by Arthur Goodwin)

David John Payne

(Birmingham 1880 -1959 Auckland New-Zealand)

British born and trained New-Zealand painter etcher, lithographer and  woodcut printmaker by occasion.

I had seen once one of these two very nice (1922) woodcut prints. Paying a virtual visit to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, and doing some investigating I found another one in their collections. A great and to me still incredible way of travelling these days.  

When I was there and looking around I found also this great (1919) lithograph: St. Matthews by Night (Auckland): a very serene picture and what great blues.

(St. Matthews seen from the East in 1919)

West view 2010

David John Payne emigrated to New-Zealand in 1908 (aged 26) after having been trained in the Birmingham Municipal School of Art. And this (below) is how he would've known and seen St. Matthews, from the N.W. from Wellesley Street. Payne choose his view from the East. Showing the aisle and chapel too. Maybe he even lived in those quarters. The area (block) has now completely changed and build up with high rising buildings. 

1910

2010

Although the church on the hill is pretty much the same, the city (and traffic) around it has changed beyond recognition.

In Birmingham exhibited in the late 19th century David Payne R.S.A. (Annan (Sc.) 1843- 1894 Sheffield). He left Scotland and lived in Duffield and later in  Barrow up on Trent, not that far from Birmingham. He was quite succesfull and prolific, not only professional: he (and his wife) procreated 14 children. But David John being not one of them. According to the 1891 census.