The Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand

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

Our extensive programme of special events is designed to complement your exhibition experience. Hear about the life and times of the Māori leaders depicted in Lindauer’s portraits direct from their descendants in person in our dedicated series of descendant floor talks. There are also daily tours, curatorial talks and ‘in conversation’ sessions that explore a range of related ideas from numerous cultural viewpoints. Make time for a return visit to see demonstrations in tā moko (Māori tattoo) and to join our weaving events.

Daily tours

We are offering tours of The Māori Portraits at 12.30pm and 2.30pm daily during the exhibition. Tours last 60 minutes, cost $10 and can only be booked at the information desk on level 1 on the day of your visit. Limited to 15 people per tour.

Groups

All education group visits to The Māori Portraits for 10 or more people should be booked at least two weeks in advance of your visit.

Tours will include an introduction to The Māori Portraits and a selection of artworks and ideas in the exhibition. The duration and nature of your tour can be agreed with our Education team when you book.

Booking is strongly recommended and booked groups will be prioritised. Large groups will be admitted into the exhibition in smaller groups.

To make a booking, email us with the details of your group, group size, and preferred date(s) and time(s) of visit. Payment can be made at the Gallery's front desk on the day of your visit. 

Adult education group bookings

Adult education groups $10

Cost per person, for groups of 10 or more people. Bookings essential.

Early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education group bookings

For all education groups on a general visit to The Māori Portraits, we offer entry to the exhibition and the support of our Volunteer Guides for your group visit.

Early childhood groups FREE
Primary school groups FREE
Secondary school groups $5
Tertiary and ESOL groups $10
Adult helpers (per person) $10

Cost per person, for groups of 10 or more people. Bookings essential.

Facilitated education programmes

We offer regular facilitated programmes for schools, some of which focus on a specific work or works in the exhibition. For details of these programmes including Descendent tours, visit our Primary and Secondary pages and look out for references to The Māori Portraits.

Photography

You are welcome to take photographs for personal use except where a no photography icon is shown. In these instances, the lenders of the works have requested that no photographs be taken. We ask that you respect this and refrain from photographing these portraits.

Māori regard the images of tipuna (ancestors) as revered taonga (treasured items) because they carry the mana (prestige, esteem) of the person depicted. Many Māori trace direct connection to the individuals in these portraits and, in so doing, have living relationships as descendants which Auckland Art Gallery respects. We ask that you also respect this relationship and are mindful of the images you might take while viewing the exhibition.

You’re encouraged to use images from the exhibition as a way of remembering and sharing your experience with others, but the reproduction of portraits as commercial items or the use of the images in a way that would cause offence is strictly prohibited. 

Pop-up shop

Before leaving the exhibition, check out our pop-up shop on the ground level. You will find biographical publications, prints and T-shirts. Along with an array of woven flax kete, you'll find contemporary Māori art pieces from some of this country’s most talented makers in ceramics, jewellery and body adornment objects.

Body adornment in Lindauer’s Māori portraits

Māori have always communicated a sense of cultural position and shown personal expression through body adornment practices. The portraits by Gottfried Lindauer are a stunning reminder of this rich history in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

The painter’s portraits of Māori leaders and revered rangatira (chiefs) offer a rich record of the status and importance of people in Māori society – both then and now.  The esteem of those depicted is also conveyed through the objects they hold and the items that adorn the body.

Useful words in te reo Māori

Find below a selection of useful words in te reo Māori that you may encounter in the exhibition. For these and more visit NZHistory. Māori Dictionary is another great online resource.

Hui – meeting, conference, gathering

Haka – chant with dance for the purpose of challenge

Waiata – song or chant which follows a speech

Koha – gift, present (usually money, can be food or precious items, given by guest to hosts)

Wharenui – meeting house

Mana – authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence

Manaakitanga – respect for hosts or kindness to guests, to entertain, to look after

Tapu – sacred, not to be touched, to be avoided because sacred, taboo

Taonga – treasured possession or cultural item, anything precious

Tūrangawaewae – a place to stand, a place to belong to, a seat or location of identity

Marae – the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house; or the whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc. 

Tangata whenua – original people belonging to a place, local people, hosts

Whakapapa – genealogy

Whenua – land, homeland, country

Hapū – a clan, tribe, independent section of a people (modern usage – sub-tribe)

Iwi – people, nation (modern usage – tribe); bones

Kaumātua – elder or elders, senior people in a kin group

Tīpuna – ancestor

Pākehā – people living in New Zealand of British/European descent

Rangatira – person of chiefly rank, boss, owner

Waka – canoe, canoe group

Whānau – extended or non-nuclear family; to be born

Karakia – say grace, pray, recite a prayer, chant

Tā moko – to tattoo, apply traditional tattoo

Pounamu – a variety of jade; greenstone

Heitiki – greenstone pendant for the neck, usually of a human image

Whakamīharo Lindauer Online

Launched in June 2010, the Lindauer Online project and website was intended to benefit all generations of New Zealanders and to actively educate and respond to the growing global interest in Lindauer and things Māori. 

VISIT LINDAUER ONLINE

Behind the Brush

On the occasion of the exhibition Māori Television are rescreening series one and two of Behind the Brush, which brings alive the stories of descendants and uncovers the lives of the artist, patron Henry Partridge and tīpuna Māori.

The series screens 8pm Wednesdays from 26 October and on demand.