IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN &
INTERNATIONAL ART

The exhibition will be on view in Sydney from Monday 1 May – Tuesday 2 May, 10 am to 5 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

Among the highlights of the sale is Charles Frederick Goldie’s magnificent Reverie: Ena te Papatahi, a Ngapuhi Chieftainess (Ina Te Papatahi, Ngā Puhi) 1916 (lot 32, estimate $1,100,000–1,500,000, pictured above).  

As in the best of Goldie’s portraits, Reverie: Ena te Papatahi, a Ngapuhi Chieftainess (Ina Te Papatahi, Ngā Puhi) blends fidelity, dignity, respect and empathy to create a work that additionally possesses psychological tensions and sensitivities.  Goldie’s skill in depicting various contrasting surfaces and textures, including the wooden carvings, human skin and hair together with various fabrics, is convincingly and subtly conveyed.  The particular expression of the sitter, introspective and reflective, disengaged with the artist and the viewer, represents a tour de force in portraiture that is emotionally intuitive and intellectually incisive.

More than one century after it was created, Charles Frederick Goldie’s Reverie: Ena te Papatahi, a Ngapuhi Chieftainess (Ina Te Papatahi, Ngā Puhi) remains a work of great historical, social and cultural significance.

Reverie: Ena te Papatahi, a Ngapuhi Chieftainess (Ina Te Papatahi, Ngā Puhi) was most recently exhibited to great acclaim in Māori Markings: Tā Moko at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, in 2019.

The auction will be held at the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia, 111 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 2 May 2023.

For more information, please contact: