Treasured Lindauer painting donated to Nelson Provincial Museum

IMAGE: PORTRAIT OF EDWARD GREEN BY GOTTLIEB LINDAUER, 1875. GIFTED BY THE FAMILY OF KARL AKERS, GRANDSON OF EDWARD GREEN: GREG, RICHARD AND REBECCA THOMPSON; AND SALLY, WENDY AND GILLIAN AKERS. PHOTO SUPPLIED BY GREG THOMPSON

A portrait of early Nelson businessman and landowner Edward Green, which was painted on commission in 1875 by the world-renowned artist Gottfried Lindauer, has been donated to the Nelson Provincial Museum.

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Passed down through Green’s descendants, the oil painting had at one stage been thought worthless and stowed away in an attic before being dusted off and hung on a wall in the family’s dining room. A second Lindauer painting of Mrs Green from the same period, which had been badly damaged in storage, was thrown away at this time. An impromptu remark by a family friend over dinner one evening drew attention to the painting of Mr Green and its remarkable provenance. It has since held pride of place in the family’s homes, however noticeable damage caused by an inconsistent thermal environment has now prompted the family to donate the painting to the Museum for better protection.

“I always just thought it was an old bloody painting” says the artwork’s current guardian and Edward Green’s great-great-grandson Greg Thompson. “But I can still remember quite clearly the night our mother’s dear friend Peggy Jack spotted it.”

“We were sitting down having fish and chips or something like that. Quite innocently, Peggy asked who the painting was by. ‘We’ve got no idea’, we said. ‘Have a look on the back’ she commanded. Someone scrambled to lift the painting from the wall and peered at it in the semi darkness. ‘Lin….Lind….’.  ‘It’s a Lindauer!’ she screamed.”

Gottfried Lindauer (b.1839, d.1926) was one of the most prolific and best-known painters of Māori subjects, in particular portraits, in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. He was born in Pilsen, Bohemia (now a part of Czech Republic) and trained professionally at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He migrated to New Zealand in 1874, spending his first year-or-so establishing himself as a commission artist before moving to Auckland. His portrait of Edward Green was completed in 1875, when Lindauer was around thirty-five years old and at the cusp of a burgeoning career. The Nelson Provincial Museum holds rare glass plate negatives of Gottfried Lindauer in his younger years, which were taken while he was based in Nelson.

IMAGE: MR GREEN, SNR. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, DAVIS COLLECTION_1083

Edward Green (b. 1818, d. 1896), who emigrated from Nottinghamshire, England, to Nelson in 1842, was a tailor, successful businessman and thought to be the first Methodist layman preacher in Nelson. He built the first house at Beacon Hill outside Hope in 1852, and owned the landmark estate now known as ‘The Sands’ in Tahunanui, which was later sold to the Council for the benefit of the city’s inhabitants. Studio photographs of Mr Green taken the same year as Lindauer’s portrait was completed, as well as family shots outside his Tahunanui house, are also in the Museum’s Collection. The family chose Nelson Provincial Museum as the future guardian of the portrait in acknowledgment of Mr Green’s firm connection to the region.

“This is an extremely significant donation on many levels, and we are beyond grateful to the family for their generosity”, says Nelson Provincial Museum CEO Lucinda Blackley-Jimson. “Edward Green was a prominent Nelsonian who left a distinguished legacy in the region, and of course Lindauer was one of the most significant New Zealand artists of this period. The Museum’s renowned photographic collection contains heritage photographs of both parties from this time, which provides important context to the work. We are delighted that this painting is returning home’.

“Nelson is the right place for this painting” says Mr Thompson. “It’s where it came from so it’s where it needs to be returned. Our family has been enjoying it for many years, hopefully a lot more people get to see it now too!”

IMAGE: EDWARD GREEN'S FAMILY. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, NELSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION_326886