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Lot #34 - Charles Frederick Goldie

  • Auction House:
    Mossgreen-Webb's
  • Sale Name:
    Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
  • Sale Date:
    11 Apr 2017 ~ 6.30pm (NZ time)
  • Lot #:
    34
  • Lot Description:
    Charles Frederick Goldie
    Ka Pai Te Kai Paipa, Portrait of Te Hei, A Maori Chieftainess
    oil on canvas, 1941
    405mm x 510mm
    signed C.F. Goldie and dated 1941, in brushpoint upper right, inscribed " Kapai Te Kai paipa" , Te Hei - Ngatiraukawa tribe, Te Hei - Ngatiraukawa Tribe in ink on three original artist's paper labels affixed verso, inscribed KAPAI TE KAI PAIPA, Studio in graphite on frame verso
  • Provenance:
    Formerly in the collection of Major Charles Passmore, a New Zealander with a distinguished WWII military record. Major Passmore's wife was Scottish and their time was divided between New Zealand and Scotland. They moved to Scotland permanently in the 1970s and the work could have left New Zealand any time between the end of WW2 and the 1970s.
  • Notes:
    Goldie's late paintings of which Ka Pai Te Kai Paipa, Portrait of Te Hei, A Maori Chieftainess (1941) is a fine example still focused on portraits of Māori in his recognisable true-to-life' style, but there were noteworthy changes in his approach. In earlier work, his meticulous observation and depiction of detail was usually applied to all elements equally - setting, dress and ornament as well as sitter creating a sense of overall verisimilitude. His late works also display a high level of realism but, in each painting, it is concentrated on the face of the sitter, while the rest of the canvas is more broadly treated and subsumed in golden light. He seems to have been paying homage to an Old Master he had copied while studying in Paris in the 1890s Rembrandt. Indeed, one work of 1933, a portrait of Hera Puna, is titled As Rembrandt Would Have Painted the Maori. This is the style of Portrait of Te Hei. While we have a general impression of a carved whare behind her and a familiar checked blanket over her shoulders, it is the focus on the face that captures our attention. The elderly chieftainess is portrayed with intense concentration on every detail of her countenance, revealed by the light that bathes its surface and glints on her forehead and the tip of her nose. Although the paintwork is more fluid than is the case in Goldie's earlier works, Te Hei's wrinkled skin is almost tangible. This concept is made all the more real as she herself fingers her chin with its moko and as the pressure of her thumb pushes up the flesh of her cheek, emphasising the idea of tactility. Te Hei's face, beneath her tousled grey hair, seems 'lived in' as though each line maps her past experiences. But there is no despondent nostalgia; she enjoys the pipe she is drawing on so that the embers flare red (the title means 'smoking is good'), and her crinkled eyes suggest shrewdness and laughter rather than vulnerability and pain. Te Hei of Ngati Raukawa was a favourite sitter, who had sat for Goldie previously for two disconsolate portraits, near frontal and profile heads, painted in 1907. [1] She was already very elderly then so it seems most unlikely that she was still alive in 1941 to sit for this work. Yet, ironically, this image seems more vital, as though Goldie compensated for her absence by endowing her with renewed life. This is no passive 'type' but an individual with a strong presence and her eyes seem to survey us as much as we do her. Her spirited image is evidence of Goldie's continuing skill even though, now in his 70s, he stopped painting that year. It adds significance to this Portrait of Te Hei that it must be amongst the very last of his works. ELIZABETH RANKIIN [1] Auckland War Memorial Museum. Echoing the dejection of the 1907 works are paintings of Te Hei dated 1909, 1920 and 1940. Two unusual works of 1909 and 1910 depict her laughing, showing her missing teeth.
  • Estimate:
    NZ$500,000 - 700,000
  • Realised Price:
    *****

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  • Category:
    Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.



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