C. F. Goldie

Charles Frederick Goldie, OBE (1870–1947) was a well-known New Zealand artist, famous for his portrayal of Māori dignitaries.

An oil portrait of Charles Goldie by Allan Mollison (2010)

Goldie was born in Auckland on 20 October 1870. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Charles Frederick Partington, who built the landmark Auckland windmill. His father, David Goldie, was a prominent timber merchant and politician, and a strict Primitive Methodist who resigned as Mayor of Auckland rather than toast the visiting Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York with alcohol. His mother, Maria Partington, was an amateur artist and encouraged his artistic ability. Goldie was educated at Auckland Grammar School, and while still at school won several prizes from the Auckland Society of Arts and the New Zealand Art Students' Association. Goldie studied art part-time under Louis John Steele, after leaving school to work in his father's business. Sir George Grey was impressed by two of Goldie's still-life paintings that were being exhibited at the Auckland Academy of Art (Steele's art society, of which Goldie was honorary secretary) in 1891, and he talked David Goldie into permitting his son to undertake further art training abroad.

Goldie went to Paris to study at the famous Académie Julian. This was a conservative institution, resistant to Impressionism and the avant-garde, and Goldie received a strong grounding in traditional, formal drawing and painting.

He returned to NZ in 1898 and established the "French Academy of Art" with Louis J. Steele, who had been his tutor prior to his departure. They collaborated on the large painting The Arrival of the Māoris in New Zealand [1], based on Géricault's Raft of the Medusa. It depicting exhausted, starved and stormtossed Polynesian mariners sighting land after a long journey by catamaran. It has been criticised as historically inaccurate (even in terms of contemporary anthropological knowledge) in its appearance of the crew and their vessel and in the situation of near-shipwreck depicted (citation needed). However, it was widely praised at the time.

Goldie and Steele parted ways not long afterwards and Goldie established his own studio. From 1901 he made field trips to meet, sketch and photograph Māori people in their own locations, and he also paid Māori visitors to Auckland to sit for him. Most of these were chiefs visiting the Native Land Court.

By far the majority of Goldie's subjects were elderly, tattooed Māori of considerable standing in their own society. (The practice of tattooing (Tā moko) was no longer current at the time, and the remaining examples were mostly elderly; it was also a practice largely confined to high-status individuals.)

An oil Portrait of Ina Te Papatahi by Goldie (1902).

Goldie's work has been criticised as "racist" (citation needed), and certainly he held the Victorian attitudes he had grown up with that the Māori were a "dying race" and in many ways inferior to Europeans (citation needed). However, many Māori value his images of their ancestors highly. Despite some critics considering his paintings "not art" (citation needed), on the rare occasions they are offered for sale they fetch high prices, among the highest for New Zealand paintings. In March 2008, NZ$400,000 (NZ$454,000 including buyer's premium) was paid at an International Art Centre auction in Auckland for the painting "Hori Pokai - Sleep, 'tis a gentle thing. [2] Earlier, NZ$530,000 (NZ$589,625 including buyer's premium) was achieved for a Goldie work in an online auction conducted by Fisher Galleries. [3] On 19 November 2010 opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sold the oil on canvas Forty Winks, a portrait of Rutene Te Uamairangi for $573,000. This is the most paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand. Many Goldies are held in public collections, including those at the Auckland Art Gallery, the Auckland Institute and Museum, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. There is an ongoing controversy about the reproduction of Goldie's paintings of Maori that are held in public collections as prints for commercial sale.[4]

Goldie's later work was largely from photographs, as his elderly models had died. Rumours that the paintings were produced with the help of a mechanical projection system are not bourne out by a comparison of the photographs with the paintings, though this shortcut was apparently practiced by Gottfried Lindauer, the other New Zealand artist well-known for Māori portraits. Goldie's health eventually deteriorated through a combination of lead poisoning (from the lead white used to prepare his canvases) and alcoholism. He died on 11 July 1947.

The convicted art forger Karl Sim changed his name legally to Carl Feodor Goldie in the 1980s in order to be able to "legitimately" sign his Goldie copies "C.F. Goldie". He no longer tries to pass them off as by the original C.F. Goldie, however. He published an autobiography with Tim Wilson in 2003 called Good as Goldie.

Known Sitters

Goldie was Auckland based and his subjects were mainly those from the tribes in the upper North Island.

• Wiripine Ninia of Ngati Awa^[1]
• Te Aho te Rangi Wharepu of Ngati Mahuta^[2]
• Ina Te Papatahi (also known as Ena) of Nga Puhi^[3]
• Harata Rewiri Tarapata of Nga Puhi^[4]

References

1. ^ "MANA-A-IWI/MANA OF THE PEOPLE". Te Huringa / Turning Points. The Fletcher Trust Collections. http://www.fletchercollection.co.nz/exhibition/turning-points/category1/cfgoldie-2.php. Retrieved 19 March 2011. 
2. ^ "'All 'e Same t'e Pakeha' (Te Aho-o-te-Rangi Wharepu, Ngãti Mahuta), 1905". eHive. Dunedin Public Art Gallery. http://ehive.com/account/3243/object/34958. Retrieved 19 March 2011. 
3. ^ "Darby and Joan [Ina Te Papatahi, Nga Puhi, 1903"]. Collections Online. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=37197. Retrieved 19 March 2011. 
4. ^ "The widow (Harata Rewiri Tarapata, Nga Puhi), 1903". Collections Online. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=43708. Retrieved 19 March 2011. 

• C.F.Goldie: Famous Māori Leaders of New Zealand by Alister Taylor (Alister Taylor Publishers, Auckland, 1993).
• C.F. Goldie - Official website of forger Karl Sim aka C.F. Goldie [5] (link dead 31 Oct, 2008)

Further reading

• Charles Frederick Goldie biography from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

External links

• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki: Works by Charles F Goldie
• Works by C.F. Goldie in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• New Zealand Fine Prints - Find prints of Goldie paintings in New Zealand
• ArtRenewal.org - Reproduces many of Goldie's works.
• Charles Goldie at MuseumSyndicate
• Notes by Una Platts
• C. F. Goldie: New Zealand exhibitions, biography and works for sale

Persondata
Name	Goldie, Charles Frederick
Alternative names
Short description	Artist
Date of birth	1870
Place of birth	Auckland
Date of death	1947
Place of death