MAORI PAINTINGS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 348, 1 May 1935, Page 7

MAORI PAINTINGS

AUCKLAND ARTIST’S SUCCESS OVERSEAS Press Association —Copyright Auckland, April 30. One of the Maori paintings by the Auckland artist, Mr. S. F. Goldie, has been accepted by the Paris Salon. Mr. Goldie has also been advised that one of his pictures has been hung by the Royal Academy at London. Last year Mr. Goldie with the active encouragement of Lord Bledirlce sent three of his paintings to the Royal Academy. All three were hung and two were sold. One of these, entitled “Memories,” was purchased by a woman before the exhibition was open to the public and realised 250 guineas. The third which was regarded by Mr. Goldie as the most important of the three is the one that has received the coveted French honour. It is a large canvas entitled “Thoughts of a Tohunga.” It represents Wharekauri Tahuna of the Tuhoe tribe who lived at Murapara and was 103 at the time of his death. Its acceptance by the Paris Salon has fully justified Mr. Goldie’s opinion as to its merit.

The picture accepted by the Royal Academy this year was regarded by the critics who saw it before it was packed as one of the finest examples of Mr. Goldie’s work. With the title “Sleep,” it is a gentle thing, representing Pokai, an old warrior chieftain of the Ngatihauwata hapu of the Ngatimaru tribe, who died in 1930. He was a fine old Maori with his battered European hat and old khaki coat, his face half tattooed, and wearing a fine hei tiki. He had been caught by the artist asleep with his head dropping and the lower lip drooping.