Inscribed on original label affixed verso Memories, Rakapa

PROVENANCE:
Private Collection 1918-1965 Purchased by D Potton from International Art Centre, circa 1975 Ex Dick & Rhoda Potton Collection Webb's, 31/03/2008

ILLUSTRATED:
p. 250 C F Goldie: His Life and Painting, Alister Taylor and Jan Glen, 1979. Titled Reverie-Rakapa in this publication Auckland Society of Arts Exhibition Catalogue, 1918

EXHIBITED:
Auckland Society of Arts, 1918

London, May 24, 1927: Another of Mr C F Goldie's three Academy pictures has been sold. The purchaser is a lady who lives in the South of England. She has chosen Memories, a Chieftainess of the Arawa Maori. Even before the Royal Academy opened to the public, Mr Goldie's An Aristocrat - Atama Paparangi A Chieftain of the Rarawas - bore the distinctive red seal which indicates 'Sold'. Memories was priced on the official chart at £262.10.

Despite being painted by Charles Goldie at least five times, the identity of Rakapa, an Arawa Chieftainess is relatively unknown.

She has, however, been confused with others with this name and links to the Te Arawa iwi (tribe) and rohe (region), including Rakapa Kakohi, a well-known composer of aroha waiata (love songs), who died in Foxton in 1877.

She may possibly be Rakapa Manawa of Mourea, near Rotorua, whose name was listed on the 1908 Māori Voter and Electoral Roll, her iwi listed as Te Arawa and her hapū as Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Te Takinga.

Another possibility is Rakapa (or Te Arani) Epiha, who died in 1925.

Source: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu