Listing Details
View Lost in Thought, Ngāheke, An Arawa Chieftain in NZ artbroker, Thursday 23rd July, 5-7.30pm
Charles Frederick Goldie (1870-1947)
Charles Frederick Goldie was born in Auckland. His talent for drawing and painting was recognised at an early age, and on encouragement his parents sought extra tuition for him with artist Louis Steele. In 1892 Goldie went on to study in France at the Academic Julian in Paris, returning 4 ½ years later in 1898 when he established the "French Academy of Art" with Steele.
The two shared a studio and collaborated on the large painting The Arrival of the Maori’s in New Zealand, based on Théodore Géricault The Raft of the Medusa. This work, held in the Auckland Art Gallery collection, depicts exhausted Polynesian mariners sighting land after a long journey by catamaran. Its artistic merits were praised at the time and it is regarded to have launched Goldie's career.
Goldie and Steele parted ways not long afterwards and Goldie established his own studio. From 1901 he made field trips to meet, sketch and photograph Māori people in their own locations, and he also paid Māori visitors to Auckland to sit for him. Most of these were chiefs visiting the Native Land Court.
By far the majority of Goldie's subjects were elderly, tattooed Māori of considerable standing. The practice of tattooing (Tā moko) was no longer current at the time, and the remaining examples were mostly elderly; it was also a practice largely confined to high-status individuals.
Goldie dedicated his life to painting the Māori chiefs, Māori leaders and their communities, who also became his friends. He lived with them on their various marae and spoke fluent Māori. His wish was to preserve the heritage of the Maori people, whom he admired.
Goldie's health eventually deteriorated through lead poisoning (from the lead white used to prepare his canvases). In order to create the finest of detail in his paintings, he would lick the end of his paint brush to ensure an even finer tip.
In 1934 and 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and in 1935, 1938 and 1939; the Salon of the Société des artistes français.
Goldie stopped painting in 1941 and died on 11 July 1947, aged 76.
Lost in Thought, Ngāheke, An Arawa Chieftain
Research has identified a previously unrecognised 1917 painting by Goldie. NZ artbroker are thrilled to bring this treasured taonga to market. Exhibited originally in Christchurch in the Annual Exhibition of the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1917, Lost in Thought, Ngāheke, An Arawa Chieftain returns to Ōtautahi, 109 years later.
A significant portrait, Lost in Thought, Ngāheke, An Arawa Chieftain by renowned New Zealand artist Charles Frederick Goldie has been comprehensively authenticated and recontextualised following five years of detailed research, conservation, and
expert analysis. Previously unrecorded Goldie paintings seldom emerge, making discoveries of this nature exceptionally rare.
Originally exhibited at the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1917, Lost in Thought, Ngāheke, An Arawa Chieftain (1917) disappeared from records until its purchase from an Estate in Australia in 2020. This set off a journey of research, multiple authentications and valuations confirming both its historical and artistic significance.
Lost in Thought is now confirmed as an original Goldie work, supported by extensive technical examination, historical documentation, and multiple independent expert reports. The research consolidates conservation findings, exhibition history, stylistic comparisons, and new evidence identifying the sitter as Patara Te Ngūngūkai, a high-ranking chieftain and tohunga of the Tuhourangi Ngāheke hapū of Te Arawa.
The portrait was originally exhibited in 1917 at the Canterbury Society of Arts annual exhibition in Christchurch, with surviving labels and frame details providing rare and direct material links to its first public showing. The original frame, attributed to McGregor Wright, and the exhibition numbering further strengthen its provenance.
The identification of the sitter as Patara Te Ngūngūkai marks a major development in the painting’s history. Goldie is known to have worked from photographs, and the portrait closely aligns with archival images held in national collections, while also reflecting the artist’s characteristic interpretive approach.
The late art historian, Roger Blackley’s scholarship, alongside additional expert opinion, situates the work firmly within Goldie’s broader oeuvre and exhibition record.
This is an important newly discovered work within Goldie’s body of work and within the cultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. For descendants of Patara Te Ngūngūkai and the Tuhourangi Ngāheke hapū, the painting represents both a taonga and a lasting testament to whakapapa.
Remarks: Oil on canvas, on original stretcher.
Signature: Upper left corner, brush point, typical C F Goldie signature for the period
Work Dimensions: 240mm W x 290mm H
Framing: Original black stained oak frame with the frame makers label on reverse, McGregor Wright’s Picture Frame Makers, and bearing the exhibition label “15” from the Canterbury Society of Arts Annual Exhibition, 1917.
Framed Dimensions: 430mm W x 480mm H
Freight: Shipping to be negotiated at point of sale
