Constructing Our Past
- 4 September 2024
In the Auckland Art Gallery's Art Toi magazine, #13 / August 2024, p.39, is an article by Jane Davison-Ladd - about the Art Gallery's latest acquisition.
"First exhibited in Melbourne in 1857, the painting was purchased not long afterwards by merchant and financier Frederick Dalgety - known in New Zealand for his seven sheep stations and the international trading firm Dalgety & Co, which operated here under versions of his name until 1993. The painting travelled to the family home Lockerley Hall in Hampshire, England, where is passed by descent to subsequent generations, before being sold to a private collection in New Zealand in 2013"
This is thought to be the earliest oil painting of a haka. It predates the New Zealand Wars in Taranaki by three years, offering a possible glimpse into the tensions among Māori that the unceasing Pākehā demand for land caused. The artist William Strutt moved to New Plymouth in March 1855, buying a bush section at Mangorei which he intended to clear and farm. He was quickly defeated by the enormity of the task, returning to Melbourne in July 1856, but during his time there sketched portraits of local Māori, the land around Taranaki and multiple studies of men doing haka. The painting appears to record a historical moment but is instead a constructed scene based on Strutt’s sketches.
The bare, unforested land in the middle of this painting is itself an important subject. Many Pākehā settlers were angry that Māori owned this cleared whenua (land) and – to their mind – did not work it. Bishop Selwyn, in an 1855 letter addressed to Anglican Parishioners in New Plymouth, countered this view, unequivocally reminding settlers of the 10th commandment: ‘THOU SHALT NOT COVET’. This unrelenting demand for land ultimately led to war in Taranaki in 1860, with the consequent loss of much Māori whenua.
Title War Dance at Taranaki, New Zealand, Mount Egmont, New Zealand in the distance
Artist/creator William Strutt
Production date circa 1857
Medium oil on canvas