Commander Richard A. Oliver
Jane Grey, Auckland, wearing a feather cape
watercolour, 1851
title inscribed in pencil, certificate of authenticity from the artist’s great granddaughter, exhibition labels & diary extracts mounted on the reverse
180 x 260 mm

Jane Maria Grey, 1834 - 1922. A beauty, the artist notes ‘famous for her personal attractions’. She married several times or had liaisons with British naval and military officers. Jane was one of five children born to Alexander Grey a blacksmith and Hinerangi Kotira from Taranaki who was educated at one of the Bay of Islands missions.
She appears in several of Oliver’s paintings and is at the far left of a group in ‘ Half Castes at Pomare’s Pah. Bay of Islands. (1851) National Library Collection. An older sister Guide Sophia Grey, 1832-1911 also known as Te Paea Hinerangi became principal guide to the Pink and White Terraces.

Provenance: Estate of John Lawford.