47. Charles Frederick Goldie
Tamaiti Tukino, A Chieftainess of the Ngatituwharetoa Tribe (aged 95 years)
Oil on wood panel
20.1 x 15 cm
Signed
est. $250,000 - 350,000
Fetched $250,000
Relative Size: Tamaiti Tukino, A Chieftainess of the Ngatituwharetoa Tribe (aged 95 years)
Relative size

Provenance

Private Collection, Auckland

Exhibited: Auckland Society of Arts 1919, no 127

Reference: p. 277 C F Goldie, His Life & Times, Alister Taylor & Jan Glen

The Maori portraits of Charles Frederick Goldie provide a magnificent historical insight into the life and times of New Zealand's indigenous people. Goldie's early art training was completed under the tutelage of Louis John Steele. In his early twenties he travelled to Paris to attend the Académie Julian and anatomy drawing at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. On his return to Auckland Goldie shared a studio with his former teacher Steele and in 1898, working collectively they completed the historical Arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand. In 1900 Goldie held his first exhibition of Pakeha and Maori portraits in Auckland. From this time onwards Goldie began to execute his highly detailed renditions of Maori, often taking particular interest in those individuals of high rank or prominence within the Māori tribes. Over time he would study and paint several portraits of the same sitter. In this painting Goldie depicts the ninety-five year old Chieftainess of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Tribe, Tamaiti Tūkino, a descendant of the paramount chief of the Tūwharetoa tribe Te Heuheu Tūkino, The Great (1780-1846). The tribe Ngāti Tūwharetoa takes its name from this powerful chief who lived near present day Kawerau during the sixteenth century. Te Heuheu Tūkino descended from the lines of Te Arawa, the primary Iwi in the central North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Tūwharetoa's tribal territory is located in the Lake Taupo water catchment area; Tamaiti Tūkino herself lived at Tokaanu. Goldie paints the Chieftainess wearing a traditional Maori cloak (korowai), greenstone pendant (hei tiki) and earring. These are all customary pieces for a person of status and honour. Tamaiti Tūkino's detailed facial tattooing (tā moko) and the reed (raupo) wall in the background reference intrinsic parts of the Maori culture and its various art forms. Indeed, Goldie's paintings depicting the Maori are recognised as important historical sources for the study of Polynesian art forms. Understandably, the works of Charles Goldie are generally regarded as the most effective portrayal of the Māori and their culture within the history of art. Tamaiti Tukino, A Chieftainess of the Ngatituwharetoa Tribe is an exemplary example of Goldie's unrivalled talent for meticulous artistic mastery and diligent documentation of the Māori civilisation.

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