Frank Wright was well known for his landscapes depicting colonial New Zealand. In this picturesque scene, he portrays Māori taking a rest by the river.

Frank and his brother Walter studied at the Newlyn School in Cornwall, England, which encouraged painting from life – en plein air (outdoors). The pair travelled around New Zealand’s backblocks in the early 1900s, taking their easels to areas as diverse as Te Urewera and Milford Sound. Both brothers, but Walter in particular, were interested in Māori subjects.

In 1923, Frank’s obituary in the Auckland Star hailed his studies of the New Zealand landscape as ‘truer than anything that has hitherto been attempted’.