Explore Aotearoa New Zealand’s rich history through more than 120 historical portraits of Māori and Pākehā by our most prolific professional colonial painter, Gottfried Lindauer.
Experience for yourself the power of Māori chiefs and leaders whose images are forever recorded in oil, and see how artist Gottfried Lindauer captured the practice of tā moko (facial tattoo). See up close ancestral figures painted in razor-sharp detail and view paintings depicting Māori life from the late 1800s to early 1900s New Zealand.
Through photographs, taonga (treasures) and keepsakes, discover Lindauer’s early art beginnings in Europe, as well as his life in New Zealand from his arrival in Wellington in 1874 until his death in Woodville in 1926. Learn about the artist’s early days in Bohemia, his artistic inventions in New Zealand, and the close relationships he built with patrons and those he photographed and painted. Discover how the artist contributed to the significance of portraiture in New Zealand and learn what his works mean for us today.
See, too, the fascinating exhibition-within-an-exhibition, Identifying Lindauer: His Materials and Techniques, which – curated by the Gallery's Principal Conservator Sarah Hillary – compares in molecular detail Lindauer’s paintings with a known forgery of his work.
The Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated publication presenting new historical and cultural research completed specifically for this project.
Curated by Ngahiraka Mason and Nigel Borell
📷 Gottfried Lindauer, Pare Watene 1878
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mr H E Partridge, 1915