He also painted scenes from the New Zealand Wars as well as of Maori life and history.
Charles Henry Kennett Watkins was born in Ootacamund, India to Major John Watkins of the Indian Army.
[1] After attending Wellington College and studying in Switzerland and France, Kennett immigrated to New Zealand at the age of twenty-seven where he first found work as a photographer before teaching in Russell.
[3] On 10 October 1876 Kennett married Clara Eliza Alice Davis at Kerikeri and had four children.
Kennett died on 31 July 1933 in Mercury Bay, Waikato and was buried at Whitianga Public Cemetery.