Gottfried Lindauers New Zealand: The Māori Portraits

284 Pages·2016·31.517 MB·English

by  Ngahiraka Mason

Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand
The Māori Portraits
Edited by Ngahiraka Mason and Zara Stanhope
Contents
Kimihia Tōna Whetū – e kau ana i Te Mangōroa
Patu Hohepa 7
Foreword
Rhana Devenport 8
He Kupu Whakataki
Elizabeth Ellis 9
Preface
Ngahiraka Mason 11
Introduction: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand
Zara Stanhope and Ngahiraka Mason 15
The View from Central Europe:
A Bohemian Artist in New Zealand
Aleš Filip and Roman Musil 23
A Perspective from New Zealand:
Lindauer’s Painting in the Settler Colonial World
Leonard Bell 39
Life and Image: The Partridge Collection
Ngahiraka Mason 51
k
The Māori Portraits
Texts by Ngahiraka Mason and Nigel Borell 61
Scenes of Māori Life and Custom
Texts by Nigel Borell 201
k
Under the Lens:
Gottfried Lindauer, the Photographer–Painter
Ute Larsen and Jane Davidson-Ladd 221
Gottfried Lindauer:
Painting Materials and Techniques
Sarah Hillary 229
Cultural Crossings:
Victorian and Māori Dress in Lindauer’s Portraits
Chanel Clarke 237
He iti, he pounamu:
Lindauer and Personal Adornment
Ngarino Ellis 241
The Kākahu Tradition of Māori
Kahutoi Te Kanawa and Ngahiraka Mason 247
The ‘Speaking Likeness’:
Gottfried Lindauer’s Pākehā Portraits
Jane Davidson-Ladd 251
Chronology: Gottfried Lindauer,
Henry Partridge and the Partridge Collection
Caroline McBride 263
Glossary 266
Notes 271
Selected Bibliography 280
Acknowledgements 281
Contributors 282

Kimihia Tōna Whetū – e kau ana i Te Mangōroa
Patu Hohepa
I whānau mai i Pilsen, Pāhimia, Czech Republic te tohunga toi nei, ā, ka whakatere mai ki Aotearoa hei
kāinga rua, ka tupu mai tana whānau. He roa te wā, ā, ka mate ka tanumia ki Woodville i Te Whanganui-
a-Tara. He tino tohunga toi, ko āna kōwaiwai Māori he taonga tāia te nui o te mana, kei ngā whare toi,
kei ngā whare taonga, kei ētahi hunga hoki e pupuri ana, e tiaki ana. Kei Te Whare Toi o Tāmaki me
Te Papa Tongarewa i Pōneke ngā kohinga rahi. He tini ngā kōwaiwai tūpuna kua tāruaruatia mai i ēnei –
kia tare i ngā marae, i ngā kāinga maha puta noa i te motu, ki ngā whare hui, ki ngā whare rūnanga hoki,
ki ngā marae me ngā kāinga takitini.
I te tau 2014, ka whakatauria kia mauria ētahi o ngā kōwaiwai whakaahua Māori a Lindauer kia tare
i te Whare Taonga Matua i Pairini i Tiamani. I tae atu ētahi o mātou o Haerewa ki te tautoko, ki te tiaki i
te mauri me te mana. Ka mihi nui atu ki ngā rangatira o te Whare Taonga i Pairini i tiaki rangatira nei i a
mātou me aua taonga.
I muri mai ka pā te rongo ka nekehia aua kōwaiwai whakaahua ki tōna haukāinga i Pilsen, nā me
haere anō; ko te kaupapa me tino tautoko. He aha ai? Ko te tikanga kawemate ka tae ki tōna whenua
tupu, ki te whare toi i whakaaetia. I te whā o Haratua, 2015, ka tau te kawemate ki tōna Whare Toi i
Pilsen, ko āna uri i haere tahi atu, ā nāna te mokopuna – kua kuia – i mau tōna whakaahua ki roto i
te whare. Ka mihi ki te katoa o Aotearoa i takahi i te ao ki te mau i ngā tikanga tuku iho. Ka mihi ki a
koutou, e ngā rangatira o Pilsen i piri mai nei ki te kaupapa whakanui i a Gottfried.
Moe mai rā, e te tohunga kaihanga i ngā taonga mau mahara nei.
Tēnā rā koutou, e ngā taonga kua whakairia nei ki tēnei Whare Toi.
Tēnā koutou, e ngā kaihautū o Te Whare Toi o Tāmaki Makaurau, me o Haerewa.
He aha hoki te mana Māori whakahirahira e tau ana ki ēnei kōwaiwai whakaahua, ki ngā hunga rānei i
waiho mā te kōkōwai e mau ō rātou hanga, me te āhua o ngā kahu me ngā taonga rangatira?
I mua rānō, i whakairo poupoutia ngā tūpuna rongonui, mana nui, hei pou ki ngā marae, ki ngā wāhi
tapu, ki ngā whenua rangatira, ki roto ki ngā urunga rānei o ngā whare whakairo, ki ngā whare rangatira
hoki. Ko ngā poutokomanawa, ko te mahau me ngā tūāpapa, ko ngā pātū hoki, i waiho hei wāhi mo aua
tūpuna, kia mana ai, kia rangona ai ngā wānanga i mau tonu ana, kia mihia, kia tangihia hoki rātou e
ngā uri.
I mua anō hoki, ko ngā tae kōkōwai i pania ki ngā poupou, ki ngā waka tauā, ki ngā waka whakatere,
me ngā waka tīwai. I mua i tiakina ngā kōiwi tūpuna i ō rātou ana, ka pania ki te kōkōwai e te tohunga
me ana kaimahi i mua i te waihotanga ki ngā ana kōiwi, ki ngā pouaka. He tapu nui, he nui te wehi kei
aua mahi. Nā, ka tae mai a Ngāti Pākehā me te mana kei o rātou tikanga whakaahua, o rātou tūpuna,
whanaunga i whakaahuatia ki te kōkōwai, ka kapohia mai aua tikanga hei tikanga Māori. Kei hea atu te
āhua whakahirahira hei mau i ō tātou whakatupuranga kia Māori tonu mō ake ake? Kōrero ā-wairua atu
ki a rātou rā e tare nei i ngā pakitara, e koutou mā – māu e mau tonu te kaupapa. Tēnā koe, tēnā koutou.
7
Foreword
Rhana Devenport
Director, AucklAnD Art GAllery toi o tāmAki
The art of Gottfried Lindauer (1839–1926) has a special resonance in the cultural psyche of Aotearoa
New Zealand, for both Māori and Pākehā. Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is honoured to generate
this remarkable publication on the occasion of the accompanying exhibition. It is the largest and
most ambitious assembly of Lindauer’s works ever presented. The endeavour builds on the successful
exhibition and publishing partnerships with the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, in 2014–15, and the Gallery
of West Bohemia in Pilsen (Lindauer’s birthplace), Czech Republic, in 2015. Lindauer’s portraits continue
to capture the imagination of the Gallery’s international visitors and remain the most requested works in
our collection.
More important, however, are the powerful and generative qualities these portraits have – particularly
for the many Māori communities across Aotearoa whose direct genealogical affiliations to the portraits are
keenly felt. Through the stories associated with each figure these taonga (treasures) provide insight into
New Zealand’s past and future. Arresting and compelling, the portraits also highlight the complex inter-
cultural exchanges that occurred at a time of great political, cultural and artistic upheaval. Lindauer’s
portraits of Māori remain a vital contribution to New Zealand’s cultural history.
The majority of Lindauer’s subjects were prominent figures in nineteenth-century New Zealand life:
entrepreneurs and global traders, tour guides and landholders, politicians and diplomats, peacemakers
and warriors acting in defiance or defence of the colonial government during the hostile New Zealand
Wars of the 1860s. Many of the individuals were rangatira (chiefs) of iwi, several of whom in 1840 signed
Te Tiriti o Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. These individuals were leading protag onists
whose actions and influence determined the rich unfolding of colonial, political, diplomatic, mercantile,
linguistic, military and spiritual life in New Zealand.
Among the many markers of burgeoning modernity that informed the late nineteenth century was
the ascendancy of mechanically produced images. Having a familiarity with photography as well as
training in religious painting in Vienna, Lindauer demonstrated his ability to create an intensity and a
directness of the gaze between subject and viewer working from his own studio photography and existing
cartes-de-visite in addition to painting from life. Lindauer’s paintings caused a sensation due to their
technical proficiency, particularly the dramatic luminosity the artist created with glazing techniques.
The combination of vivid realism and powerful subject matter in these portraits contributed to the
enthusiastic reception they received at the time of their making – and to their enduring potency.
The Gallery became the permanent home to the Partridge Collection of Lindauer’s portraits and genre
paintings in 1915. Since 2010, the Gallery’s Whakamīharo Lindauer Online has offered a digital portal into
the stories of the tīpuna (ancestors) portrayed in these precious taonga. Much of the information has been
given by descendants and provides a deep pool of knowledge and a collective memory.
I thank the many contributors to this publication, for their insightful and thoughtful observations and
significant new research, and the descendants for their generosity and support for our work. I honour the
late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki CNZM for his vision and foresight. The combined illumination of all in this
book will pave the way for future understanding of Lindauer’s work and the world he inhabited.
8
He Kupu Whakataki
Elizabeth Ellis
Kimihia te mea ngaro — ka tuohu koe, he maunga teitei
He moemoeā i tutuki — ko ō mātou tapuwae, ō mātou roimata i mahue . . .
Ka mihi ki a koutou, tātou katoa hoki e whakarere tapuwae ana mō ngā uri whakaheke. Tēnā koutou.
Search for what is hidden — and only bow to lofty mountains
Our dreams are realised — only our footprints and tears are left behind . . .
I send my thanks to all of you, to all of us who are leaving footprints for our future generations. Greetings.
This is a book that speaks to many things: New Zealand’s art history, the life and works of portraitist
Gottfried Lindauer, art patronage in nineteenth-century colonial society, paintings of Māori between
the years 1874 and 1910 and the upheavals in Aotearoa at that time. This significant book complements
the comprehensive website Whakamīharo Lindauer Online, and the beautiful television documentary
series launched in 2013 entitled Behind the Brush, which focuses on the lives of Māori painted by Lindauer.
And the book echoes the grand and successful Gottfried Lindauer exhibitions in Berlin, Germany, in 2014,
and Pilsen in the Czech Republic in 2015; and now in 2016 here at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand: The Māori Portraits focuses on a politically contested period in the
making of New Zealand’s identity and history and presents new research and insights about familiar and
forgotten pasts that sit behind Lindauer’s life and paintings. Remarkable individual histories of ancestors
and the specifics of the past are discussed from today’s perspective.
As an active Māori arts advocate, I know that providing future citizens of the world more, not less,
history is the key to understanding the specifics of our place in the world: that of Māori and of Pākehā.
The faces portrayed by Lindauer hold a space of political contradiction and tension that reaches back
140 years. The portraits remain culturally, socially and personally significant to descendants who carry
the names, deeds and histories of ancestors.
This book comes at a time of post-Treaty of Waitangi settlement in New Zealand, when we are able to
reflect on the journeys that Māori have been taking since 1840, and, as we turn to the future, consider new
ways to articulate our history and celebrate our survivance.
Me haere whakamua tātou.
Elizabeth Ellis CNZM JP nGāpuhi, nGāti kutA, nGāti porou, te WhānAu-A-tAkimoAnA, nGāi tāne
Fred Graham ONZM nGāti korokī kAhukurA, nGāti rAukAWA
Mere Harrison Lodge nGāti porou
Dr Patu Hohepa nGāpuhi, te māhurehure
Bernard Makoare nGāti WhātuA-heru-hāpAi
Dr Benjamin Pitman nGāpuhi: nGāti hAo, te pArAWhA, nGāti hAu
Lisa Reihana nGāpuhi, nGāti hine, nGāi tŪ
9
Samuel Carnell, Gottfried Lindauer sitting in the mahau (porch), Heretaunga
meetinghouse at Taradale, c. 1880–1900, private collection