From the 1870s to the early twentieth century, the Bohemian immigrant artist Gottfried Lindauer travelled to marae and rural towns around New Zealand and – commissioned by Maori and Pakeha – captured in paint the images of key Maori figures. For Maori then and now, the faces of tupuna are full of mana and life. Now this definitive book on Lindauer’s portraits of the ancestors collects that work for New Zealanders. The book presents 67 major portraits and 8 genre paintings alongside detailed accounts of the subject and work, followed by essays by leading scholars that take us inside Lindauer and his world: from his artistic training in Bohemia to his travels around New Zealand as Maori and Pakeha commissioned him to paint portraits; his artistic techniques and deep relationship with photography; Henry Partridge’s gallery of Lindauer works on Queen Street in Auckland where Maori visited to see their ancestors; and the afterlife of the paintings in marae and memory. Published in association with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

Ngahiraka Mason was born and raised in Te Urewera and was Maori curator at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki from 1999 to 2015. Zara Stanhope is principal curator at the gallery and has written a number of books, articles and exhibition catalogues. She has an MA from the Courtauld Institute and is finishing a PhD at ANU. Contributing writers include Len Bell, Nigel Borrell, Chanel Clarke, Jane Davidson-Ladd, Ngarino Ellis, Aleš Filip, Sarah Hillary, Ute Larsen, Roman Musil, and Kahu Te Kanawa.