Come face to face with the leading Māori protagonists of nineteenth-century New Zealand (Aotearoa) in a series of arresting images by the country’s most prolific portrait painter, Gottfried Lindauer. These paintings, revered embodiments of Māori ancestors, document a fascinating and tumultuous era of cross-cultural interactions.

Mesmerizing historic portraits of Māori rangatira (men and women of standing and chiefs) are on view in Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand. Painted by a Bohemian-born immigrant artist who created the largest number of Māori portraits in existence, these finely detailed and powerful images pay tribute to the individuals who served their communities and the emerging country of New Zealand—called Aotearoa by the Māori—during a time of great political and social upheaval.

They document peacemakers and warriors, politicians and diplomats, tour guides and landholders, entrepreneurs and global traders.