Posted 4 years ago
vetraio50
(751 items)
Potatau I - Te Wherowhero.
Found this Martin Boyd small dish earlier this week and I knew it was different because of the NZ subject matter. I knew that MB did stuff for the NZ market but in forty years this is my first Maori piece. A little research led me to an image that the MB artist had used for the portrait. I just have not been able to find out where the original image comes from. Any help would be appreciated.
Te Wherowhero, or Potatau was the principal chief of all Waikato.
There are only two images I have seen on the net of the first Maori King ‘Te Wherowhero’. One is a 1847 painting by George French Angas and depicts him as a man in his fifties. In 1844 Angas spent four months in the North Island of New Zealand.
The other is a drawing that seems to be a much later drawing of Te Wherowhero but as a young man. Both images have him in full moko.
But the second image seems to be the one used by the Martin Boyd artist to create this image of ‘Te Wherowhero’. I’ve included a copy of it too for reference. So far I have been unable to track down the origin of this drawing. On many NZ sites the George Angas portrait is used. But there are a few sites that prefer to use the other image.
Te Wherowhero was born towards the end of the eighteenth century and died on June 25, 1860.
Potatau I is said to have been over six feet tall and was the most famous of the Maori warriors of his time. Te Wherowhero means ‘red man' and it’s believed that he was given this title as he was the first among his people to wear a ‘scarlet blanket’, regarded by the Maori peoples as a great treasure in those early days of settlement.
The fourth image : ‘This work uses data sourced from Te Papa.’ The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum, located in Wellington. Known as Te Papa, or 'Our Place', it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum and the National Art Gallery.
Many thanks YOUGOTTAHAVESTUFF, PHIL, THOMAS & BOBBY !.!!.!.!!.!
Amazing find Vet, and great Maori history
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Did Boyd do more NZ based stuff do you think Vet? Did he do them here or visit?
I think it’s a very interesting subject for him to paint, different to lots of his Aus subject matter.
very nice Kevin!!!
Love #2000 for me and a worthy choice!
Hi KAREN. I think all the MB stuff was done here in Oz .... in Sydney. In 1950 they had two premises in Neutral Bay and Woollahra. Later that year they moved it all to Ryde. Not far from Top Ryde. Martin Boyd was actually Guy Martin à Beckett Boyd (1923-1988), sculptor and potter, born at Murrumbeena, Melbourne,. He was the third child of William Merric Boyd, potter, and his wife Doris Lucy Eleanor Bloomfield, née Gough, a painter.
In one article in October, 1949 you see Guy Boyd using his second name as a nom de plume : “ When Martin Boyd, of Cremorne, was still quite a lad, his father, Merrick Boyd, taught him much of the art of pottery making. During the war Martin taught his trade to disabled soldiers at Ingleburn Camp. On his discharge from the Army in 1946, he decided to make pottery his business. When the demand for his work grew, he took three partners into the firm — Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Flegg and Mr. D. M. Miller. Now, at 26, Martin Boyd has a flourishing business. Partner Flegg's garage has been, fitted out as a workshop, and contains a throwing wheel and a kiln. Here the partners work at new designs, experiments in special clay treatment and in the turning out of routine platters, lamp stands, ashtrays and so on. Flegg handles the distribution and business side of the firm. Throughout Australia there is wide demand for Martin Boyd's work, and he also sells in New Zealand and Tasmania. Requests for his pottery are beginning to ccme in from the United States and Canada. His greatest ambition is to put Australian pottery on the world map — and he's going the right way about it. “ (Sydney Sun)
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Interesting, thanks for the info Kevin.
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Vetraio very very interesting to know about these pieces and culture so far away from where I live.
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