| Collection |
MHS (unaccessioned) Art |
| Description |
James McDonald, Pa during the Maori Wars of the 1860s, after 1905, monochrome watercolour, gouache, and ink. Source unknown.The image of this painting is the lower of the two paintings in frame.One hundred and thirty years after Cook's voyages, the artist James McDonald (1865 - 1935) devoted his career to recreating images of Maori ways of life. Traditional Maori culture had fundamentally changed as European settlers acquired their land and introduced diseases, such as measles, that threatened to wipe out the entire race.In 1903 Dunedin-born McDonald returned from training at the National Gallery School in Melbourne and began work at the Dominion Museum in Wellington in 1905. His job involved observing Maori artefacts, costume, weapons and architecture and creating illustrations, props, photographs and films which helped interpret the collections. In 1906 he worked with the Tourist Department organising the international Christchurch Exhibition in Hagley Park, helping create the full scale Maori Pa. The rifles in this picture suggest it is a recreation of large pa during the Maori wars of the 1860s.
Label for Hidden Gems exhibition July to September 2014 written by Jane Vial, Guest Curator. |
| Object ID |
0000.800.0854 |
| Object Name |
Painting |
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