Unusual McDougall exhibition

Press, 20 July 1979, Page 13

Unusual McDougall exhibition

One of the most unusual exhibitions of the year opened this week in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. It is a collection, assembled by the Waikato Art Museum, of paintings, sketches, and artefacts from the career of Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky — artist, author, adventurer, leader of a guerrilla-type company of rangers during the Maori Wars and one of New Zealand’s few' genuine folk-heroes. Von Tempsky, born in East Prussia, came to New Zealand seeking gold at Coromandel in 1862, after a variety of adventures in Central and North America and Australia.

He became a war correspondent at the outbreak of the Maori Wars, and when the Waikato Forest Rangers were formed, he signed on, at the age of 35, as the army’s oldest ensign. In eight months, he had become a major, and a living legend. The Maoris called him “Manu-rau” (Many Birds), a name prompted by the speed with which he and his men moved through the bush. Von Tempsky led his comp„..y of irregulars in a series of successful operations, alternately scrapping with the enemy and his own superior officers; he was decorated twice for bravery, arrested for

insubordination, hailed by the Prime Minister as the “lion of the hour,” and acquitted of disobeying orders in a court martial that caused a political upheaval in the colony and led to the resignations of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister. The exhibition covers the whole of von Tempsky’s career, featuring drawings, paintings, reproductions of works that could not be borrowed for the show, and a variety of artefacts, including the von Tempsky family crest, itself the subject of a romantic legend: it includes an oriental head, and the family tradition is that

this records an incident in which an ancestor rode into a Turkish camp, killed the commander, and was wounded by three arrows as he escaped with the head of the Turk, which he delivered to his general. Several swords are included, though none is the one shown in the only known photograph of von Tempsky in Forest Rangers uniform (this picture, owned by Mr J. M. Caffin, of Christchurch, has been enlarged to make a life-size cut-out figure). This sword, known as the Te Ngutu o te Manu sword, has become the subject of almost as many legends as von Tempsky

himself. He was wearing it when he was shot dead in the battle of Te Ngutu o te Manu, and although a contemporary account describes his slayer brandishing it at the victory celebration, it has not been seen since. Most likely, it went on the funeral pyre with von Tempsky's body, or was buried. The exhibition also includes his bowie knife, and his guitar — he was an accomplished musician, and frequently performed at concerts. As well as the w'orks on paper and canvas, there are five powder horns, with scrimshaw decorations by von Tempsky, one of them featuring an

unusual combination: a Maori man and woman at the top, a still life in the middle, and a depiction of the biblical characters, Hagar and Ishmael, at the bottom. Several of the sketches date from von Tempsky’s youth in East Prussia. Others record events, places, and people of the Mosquito Coast, California, Australia, New Zealand. and Mexico, several of the latter being woodcut illustrations from his book, “Mitla.” One item which is not in the exhibition, but is not far away, is an iron artefact found at Mitla by von Tempsky; this is owned by the Canterbury Museum."