C. F. Goldie

Charles Frederick Goldie (20 October 187011 July 1947) was a New Zealand artist, best known for his portrayal of Māori elders.

Early life Goldie was born in Auckland on 20 October 1870. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Charles Frederick Partington, who built the landmark Auckland windmill. His father, David Goldie, was a prominent timber merchant and politician, and a strict Primitive Methodist who resigned as Mayor of Auckland rather than toast the visiting Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York with alcohol. His mother, Maria Partington, was an amateur artist and encouraged his artistic ability. Goldie was educated at Auckland Grammar School, and while still at school won several prizes from the Auckland Society of Arts and the New Zealand Art Students' Association.

Art education Goldie studied art part-time under Louis John Steele, after leaving school to work in his father's business. A former Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey, was impressed by two of Goldie's still-life paintings that were being exhibited at the Auckland Academy of Art (Steele's art society, of which Goldie was honorary secretary) in 1891, and he talked David Goldie into permitting his son to undertake further art training abroad.

Goldie went to Paris to study at the famous Académie Julian, where Goldie received a strong grounding in drawing and painting.

Artistic career

He returned to New Zealand in 1898 and established the "French Academy of Art" with Louis J. Steele, who had been his tutor prior to his departure. They shared a studio and collaborated on the large painting The Arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand, It depicted exhausted, starved and storm-tossed Polynesian mariners sighting land after a long journey by catamaran. Its representation of a starving crew and fanciful canoe was disdained by contemporary Māori. However, its artistic merits were praised at the time and is said to have launched Goldie's career. He was buried at Purewa Cemetery in the Auckland suburb of Meadowbank.

Known sitters

Goldie was Auckland based and his subjects were mainly those from the tribes in the upper North Island. Wiripine Ninia of Ngati Awa Te Aho-o-te-rangi Wharepu of Ngati Mahuta Ina Te Papatahi (also known as Ena) of Ngā Puhi Harata Rewiri Tarapata of Ngā Puhi Kamariera Te Hau Takiri Wharepapa of Ngā Puhi Wharekauri Tahuna of Ngāti Manawa Hori Pokai of Ngati Maru

Honours In 1935, Goldie was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. Soon after, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to art in New Zealand, in the 1935 King's Birthday and Silver Jubilee Honours.

Legacy Goldie's work is associated with the contemporary belief that the Māori were a "dying race". Many Māori value his images of their ancestors highly. On the rare occasions they are offered for sale they fetch high prices, among the highest for New Zealand paintings. Goldie is considered among the most important New Zealand artists, and the prices fetched reflect this view. The 1941 oil portrait of Wharekauri Tahuna was the first painting in New Zealand history to break the $1 million mark, reaching a top price of $1.175 million. In March 2008, NZ$400,000 (NZ$454,000 including buyer's premium) was paid at an International Art Centre auction in Auckland for the painting Hori Pokai - "Sleep, 'tis a gentle thing". Earlier, NZ$530,000 ($589,625 including buyer's premium) was achieved for a Goldie work in an online auction conducted by Fisher Galleries. On 19 November 2010 opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sold the oil on canvas "Forty Winks", a portrait of Rutene Te Uamairangi, for NZ$573,000. This was the most paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand at the time, but was later surpassed by Goldie's portrait of Ngāti Manawa chief Wharekauri Tahuna, entitled "A Noble Relic of a Noble Race" (sold in 2016 for NZ$1,300,000

Many Goldies are held in public collections, including those at the Auckland Art Gallery, the Auckland Institute and Museum, the Christchurch Art Gallery, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Some descendants of Māori represented in Goldie's paintings object to them being sold as prints. In 2022, a group of descendants of chief Kamariera Te Hau Takiri Wharepapa unsuccessfully attempted to raise the funds necessary to buy the painting at auction.

In March 2024, six paintings by Goldie were sold at auction in Auckland from the collection of Mainfreight co-founder Neil Graham. The collection sold for a total of , and included a portrait of Waikato warrior Te Aho-o-te-Rangi Wharepu which sold for .

Forgeries by Karl Sim The convicted art forger Karl Sim changed his name legally to Carl Fedor Goldie in the 1980s in order to be able to "legitimately" sign his Goldie copies "C. F. Goldie". He published an autobiography with Tim Wilson in 2003 called Good as Goldie: the amazing story of New Zealand’s most famous art forger.