Portrait of Rangihaeata

item details

NamePortrait of Rangihaeata

ProductionCharles Decimus Barraud; artist; 1864; New Zealand

Classificationwatercolours, portraits, works on paper

Materialswatercolour, paper

Materials Summarywatercolour

DimensionsImage: 292mm (width), 404mm (height)

Registration Number2003-0032-1

Credit linePurchased 2003

Overview

Te Weriweri o te Tonga – The Dread of the South
A name that northern tribes used for the chief Te Rangihaeata

Te Rangihaeata loomed large in Māori and European imaginations in the early 1800s. He was one of Ngati Toa’s most feared warriors, and a staunch defender of its land rights.

This watercolour by Charles Barraud shows Te Rangihaeata later in life, when his appetite for war was waning. Shortly before his death in 1855, he told Governor George Grey that ‘the spirit of the times was for peace, and now men, like women, used their tongues for weapons’.

Barraud, a Wellington pharmacist, was a key figure in the colonial arts scene. Eighteen years after painting this work, he co-founded the Fine Arts Association – the capital’s first organisation dedicated to art.