PACKE, William c.1840–1882

An accomplished watercolourist, painter of back country Canterbury scenes. Son of a lieutenant-colonel in the Grenadier Guards. April 1867 arrived in Canterbury accompanied by brother George and in 1868 they took up Raincliff Station, South Canterbury: in this year he made his well-known watercolour of Samuel Butler's cottage at Mesopotamia on the Rangitata. At Canterbury Art Ex 1870 a watercolour by William Packe was shown, lent by George Packe. In the early 1870s the brothers became partners in the well-known firm of land and commission agents, but William Packe later returned to England. He married in 1875; died in London. Represented: Turnbull, and Canterbury Museum.