Artwork information

Sarah Rutherford is dressed in her best clothes for the occasion of her portrait and Lindauer has taken meticulous care in recording the details in her costume and elegant jewellery. It has been said that early New Zealand settlers wore fashions that were some years behind those in Europe. However, people, especially women, would not be caught dead allowing themselves to be painted wearing out-of-date fashion. Both Sarah and her husband James could be thought of as our ‘Gothic couple’ because they are depicted in a grim almost matter-of-fact manner, but magnificently at the same time; perhaps to extol the virtues of hard-working colonial farmers.