Explore the major events in the lives of Gottfried Lindauer and his patron Henry Partridge, and the development of the Partridge Collection.
5 January 1839 - Gottfried Lindauer is born at
Pilsen (Plzeň), Bohemia. He is the son of Hynek-Ignác (or Ignatz)
Lindauer, a gardener, and his wife, Maria Schmid.1
17 June 1848 - Henry Edward Partridge is born
to Charles Partridge and Mary-Ann Seagrave at Somers Town,
London.2
Fig. 1 Gottfried
Lindauer, Self-portrait. Private Collection. Image courtesy of
Lindauer Replica Studio, Woodville.
1855 - Lindauer travels to Vienna to study
painting at the Academy under Léopold Kupelwieser and Josef von
Führich.3
1858 - Partridge enters the workforce in London
at the age of 10. He works for Epp's Cocoa Factory for ten hours a
day, six days a week.4
1861 - Partridge joins the Navy at around 13
years of age and works on a number of ships, travelling to Nova
Scotia, the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico. Partridge is hurt
during a voyage and the injury prohibits him from continuing naval
service.5
1861 - Lindauer joins the studio of Carl
Hemerlein, a fashionable portrait painter.6
1863 - 64 - Lindauer is commissioned to paint
murals for two churches in Moravia.
1864 - Lindauer establishes his own studio in
Pilsen under the patronage of a physician, and specialises in
portraits of the local gentry.7
1866 - Partridge finds himself stuck in China
after having joined the crew of a merchant ship involved with the
tea trade. Here Partridge meets sailors who tell him of the gold
rush in Australia. He then takes a three-month voyage, arriving in
Sydney in October 1866.8
Fig. 2 Unknown. Henry
Edward Partridge c. 1899. Image kindly supplied by Bruce W.
Graham.
1867 - Having been told about the gold fields
in Buller and Otago, Partridge travels to New Zealand on the
Tainoni, arriving at Hokitika in early 1867.9
Two of his siblings, Jesse Adelaide and Arthur, later follow him to
New Zealand.10
1870 - Partridge settles in Moanataiari
Creek, Thames and this is where his acquaintance begins with James
Mackay, Government Agent in the Waikato.11
Partridge accompanies Mackay to Māori villages to meet important
rangatira (chiefs).
2 Aug 1870 - Partridge marries
Miriam Antoinette Odlum.12
Miriam's brother then in turn marries Partridge's sister, Jessie.
Although a further two children (Ethel Alice and Horace
Louis) die in infancy, Henry and Miriam raise seven children,
who are named Lillian Jessie Katherine, Miriam Lena, Henry Harold,
Myra Lindauer, Mary, Eileen Lois and Colleen Jean Conradine Mary.13
1873 - Henry Partridge moves his family from
Thames and starts a business in Auckland.14
6 August 1874 - Gottfried Lindauer arrives in
Wellington on the Reichstag.15
c. 187416
- Lindauer comes to Auckland and meets Henry Partridge. Soon after,
Partridge begins commissioning portraits of well-known Māori from
Lindauer.
1874 - Earliest production date of Lindauer
paintings in the Partridge Collection. These are Eruera Maihi
Patuone (1915/2/24), Huria Matenga Ngarongoa
(1915/2/15), Taraia Ngakuti Te Tumuhuia (1915/2/41), and
Te Hira Te Kawau (1915/2/69).
1877 - Lindauer holds an exhibition in
Wellington which draws interest and leads to prominent Māori chiefs
commissioning their portraits from him.17
1879 - Lindauer is married in Melbourne,
Australia, to Emelia Wipper of Danzig, Germany. She dies in
Christchurch on 24 February 1880.18
15 September 1885 - Lindauer is married at
Napier, New Zealand, to Rebecca Petty, of Bishop Stortford,
England.19 They have two
sons, Hector and Victor.20
1886 - Walter Buller commissions the New
Zealand section at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. As
a major patron of Lindauer's, he includes 12 of his paintings in
the exhibition.21 The display
of these works was to 'illustrate fully the history, art, manners,
and customs of the Maori race'.22
One of these paintings, Poi Girl, is presented to the
Prince of Wales23
after he had admired it.24
1888 - The Partridge family have several
changes of residence within Auckland until settling in a house at
50 Grafton Road25 in Grafton,
overlooking the Auckland Domain,26
where Partridge remains for the rest of his life.27 The Partridge Collection was
initially displayed at this residence, possibly in the basement
level,28
which was used as a workshop for Partridge.29
1889 - Lindauer settles in Woodville,
Hawkes Bay at a section on Pinfold Road. He remains at this
property for the rest of his life.30
1898 - A number of Partridge's collection of
Lindauer's paintings 'formed a notable feature' of the Art Gallery
in the Auckland Industrial and Mining Exhibition.31
The first film shot in New Zealand shows at the opening of this
exhibition on December 1, made by New Zealand's first filmmaker,
Alfred Whitehouse.32
1900 - Lindauer is estimated to have painted 50
portraits of Māori for Partridge by this date. The Collection was
described as Partridge making 'a hobby of forming a portrait
gallery of celebrated Maoris'.33
1901 - The Partridge Collection goes on display
at the Lindauer Art Gallery, on the floor above34
Partridge's business premises35 at 204 Queen Street, Auckland.
The collection is exhibited free of charge.36
1901 - Publication of James Cowan's
Maori Biographies: Sketches of Old New Zealand : Descriptive
Catalogue of Maori portraits Painted by Herr G. Lindauer,
printed for Henry Partridge.
1903 - Lindauer is described in a newspaper as
dividing his 'devotion between painting and la petite
culture'.37 This is
likely referring to his personal landscaping activities and his
raising of poultry on his land in Woodville.38
March 1904 - Partridge is approached to lend
the New Zealand Government several Lindauer paintings for display
at the St. Louis World's Fair in Missouri, USA (April 30th -
December 1st, 1904). Ten paintings are eventually sent for display.
They are shown in the Department of Forestry and Game, and the
Palace of Agriculture.39
1904 - British-born sculptor Allan Hutchinson,
while at the St. Louis World's Fair, completes a bust of Gottfried
Lindauer, commissioned by Partridge. Hutchinson had lived in New
Zealand between October 1899 and February 1902 and Partridge had
commissioned the bust during this time.40
Some 'very fine casts of Maori types' by Hutchinson were also
displayed in Partridge's Lindauer Art Gallery on Queen Street
around 1901.41
Hutchinson's bust of Lindauer is now held at the Auckland Art
Gallery (U/30/2).
February 1906 - Partridge offers the Partridge
Collection to the New Zealand Government to purchase for ₤10,000.
It refuses the offer. Partridge states that his motivation for sale
is because the lease on his business premise in Queen Street
expires at the end of 1908.42
April 1906 - Henry Partridge is informed that
he has been awarded a 'Gold Medal for Paintings of Maori Types'
from the International Jury of Awards at the Universal Exposition
(World's Fair) of St. Louis, 1904.43
December 1912 - After reading in a newspaper of
Partridge's intention to close the Lindauer Art Gallery due to lack
of space, C. J. Parr, the Mayor of Auckland, contacts Partridge to
suggest that the Collection should be loaned to the Auckland City
Council for display in the Auckland Art Gallery.44
Parr contacts Partridge at the suggestion of Thomson W.
Leys.45
Early 1913 - Partridge loans his collection to
the Auckland Art Gallery. He agrees to pay for the cost of the
move, insurance, and not to hold Council liable for any damage
while at the Gallery.46
1914 - Henry Partridge's desire to help the
Belgian refugees of World War I begins when he, his wife Miriam,
and two of their daughters47,
Miriam Lena and Eileen, travel in 1914 to Switzerland where Eileen
has an operation. In July, as the political situation in Europe
deteriorates, Eileen is not well enough to travel, and in August,
the family are marooned in Berne upon the declaration of war. The
Partridge family eventually reach England, and later travel back
home to New Zealand, arriving in Auckland in early 1915. During
that difficult journey, Partridge witnesses the mass fleeing of
Belgians who are escaping the advancing Germans. Upon his return,
Partridge discovers an appeal has already been launched in Auckland
to fundraise for Belgian refugees.48
Thus, he offers to donate the Partridge Collection to the City of
Auckland, if £10,000 could be raised for the Lindauer Fund of the
Auckland Belgium Relief Fund.
3 April 1915 - Lindauer Fund is inaugurated by
the inclusion in the daily newspapers49
of a large two page, double-sided appeal asking the public 'Will
you show in a practical manner your appreciation of the donor's
generosity? Will you help the Belgians? Will you help to secure the
pictures for Auckland?'50
22 May 1915 - Lindauer Fund is closed on or
about this day after £10,000 is raised.51
1915 - The Partridge Collection is accessioned
into the Auckland Art Gallery's collection.
1918-1920 - Lindauer's eyesight deteriorates
and he ceases to paint.52
1920 - Partridge retires at the age of
72.53
13 June 1926 - Lindauer dies at
Woodville.54
1930 - Publication by Whitcombe and Tombs of
James Cowan's book Pictures of Old New Zealand: The Partridge
Collection of Maori Paintings.
12 September 1931 - Partridge dies at his home
in Grafton, and is buried in Purewa Cemetery in Meadowbank,
Auckland.55
1965 - J.C. Graham's book Maori Paintings;
Pictures from the Partridge Collection of Paintings is
published. Graham, known as Jock, is Partridge's grandson, the
child of Myra Lindauer Graham.
1953 - After the radio broadcast of an episode
of Superman in which a character is ordered to damage
pictures of 'non-white people', seven Māori portraits at the
Auckland Art Gallery are pierced through the eye and another is
slashed.56
1987 - The Partridge Collection is shown and a
new visitors' book is made available during the exhibition Te
Maori Te Hokinga Mai: The Return Home.
1997 - The Partridge Collection is shown in its
entirety and a dedicated visitors' book is made available at the
Auckland Art Gallery's Goldie exhibition.
2010 - Whakamīharo Lindauer Online is
launched, featuring the Māori portraits of Gottfried Lindauer and
the Visitors' Book recording the comments of visitors to the
Partridge Collection from 1901-1918.