Darby and Joan [Ina Te Papatahi, Ngāpuhi]

This essay originally appeared in New Zealand Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2018).

When the Countess of Ranfurly, the popular viceregal consort, was asked to indicate an appropriate gift to mark her departure from New Zealand, she remembered the remarkable pair of paintings at that year’s exhibition of the Auckland Society of Arts. The paintings were by the rising star of the Auckland art world, Charles F Goldie, whose wealthy family had supported his academic training in Paris during the 1890s.

Back in his native Auckland, Goldie applied his skills to the production of hyper-realistic portraits of elderly Māori in poses of nostalgic reverie. Among his favourite early models were Īna Te Papatahi and Hārata Rēwiri Tarapata of Ngāpuhi. The 1903 paintings that captivated the countess were ambitious, life-sized depictions in which Goldie experimented with placing the models within cracked and fraying architectural settings. Together with the titles of the works, the decidedly decaying location served to emphasise the nostalgic mood.

The acquisition of the two paintings for $900,000 by the National Art Gallery in 1990 sparked considerable controversy. Public interest focused on the unprecedented purchase price, while Māori commentators regarded the debate over the purchase price as demeaning to the mana of the models. In a discussion of the affair, Rosemary McLeod made the following point: ‘Past art brawls were always based on knowledgeable institutions clashing with an ignorant public: the smart against the uneducated. In this case, there’s a novel twist: the public loves Goldie and is expected to enjoy these portraits.’1

Goldie’s work indeed receives broad and somewhat paradoxical realms of support. Formerly denounced by art cognoscenti as academic dross and even ‘coon humour’,2 the paintings are however highly coveted in the art market and revered as ancestral icons by descendants of those depicted. Jokey names like Darby and Joan (signifying an inseparable couple) have been said to demean the sitters. Yet several of the humorous titles were suggested by the models themselves, and such irreverence undeniably appeals to a Māori sense of humour.

Arguably, for an artist to be considered ‘great’, their work needs to cause debate. Given the strongly voiced and sometimes contradictory responses that his work evokes, Goldie rates as one of
New Zealand’s greatest artists.

Roger Blackley

1 Rosemary McLeod, ‘There’s no brawl like an art brawl’, North & South, April 1991, p. 62.

2 Jim Barr, quoted in the Evening Post, Wellington, 12 December 1990, p. 9.

This oil painting features Ina Te Papatahi, a Ngā Puhi leader from the Hokianga, who Charles Goldie first painted in 1902. She appeared in more than eighteen Goldie portraits over the following years. Darby and Joan illustrates Goldie's characteristic methods of painting Māori subjects. It features careful brushwork, a naturalistic approach to the subject, and a contrast of Māori sitter and Māori material culture.

Gifts to the Governor
In 1903, this painting and one of Ina Te Papatahi's cousin, Rewiri Tarapata, were given to Lady Ranfurly, wife of the Governor, as a parting gift by the citizens of Auckland when she left Aotearoa. In 1990 both paintings were again in the spotlight when the National Art Gallery controversially purchased them for $900,000. While the price was high, the acquisition has enhanced Goldie's representation in Te Papa's collection, and the two portraits show him at the peak of his career.

Ambivalent images
Goldie's painting has been criticised as formulaic. It is often noted that Goldie's attitude towards his subjects is somewhat ambiguous. Meticulous and realistic, the portraits record valuable information about some notable figures. But as the title Darby and Joan suggests, Goldie isn't simply painting a portrait of Te Papatahi. 'Darby and Joan' makes reference to a well-known English song, in which an old couple, long-time partners, are still touchingly attached to each other. Here, 'Joan' is Te Papatahi, and 'Darby' is the carving she sits beside. Intentionally or not, the nostalgia of the paintings also tends to perpetuate a European view at the time of Māori as a dying race.