Charles Barraud was a pharmacist turned artist who spent time travelling around New Zealand making drawings and watercolours of the varied landscapes of the country. He was an influential member of New Zealand society in the nineteenth century, serving both as president of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1877 he travelled to London to publish this work, New Zealand: Graphic and Descriptive. Despite being a historically significant work, providing an insight into the appearance of the country in the nineteenth century, much of the original quality of Barraud's watercolours was lost during the lithographic process.