The Art of Colonisation: Images of Europe’s Encounters with New Zealand
by Paul Moon
This is a scholarly work by history professor Paul Moon, as all the references to academic sources suggest. But it is also an accessible insight into colonial history, using images and paintings as snapshots of people and unfamiliar landscapes, almost all being from a European viewpoint.
So The Art of Colonisation is a hard cover book with high quality reproductions of drawings and paintings held in museums, archives and art galleries. It is set out in short chapters that introduce a particular image, and then Moon provides a lot of contextual information about the artist and the setting, as well as his interpretation. All of this is of great interest to those serious about history.
Moon begins with a relatively lengthy introductory essay which sets the overall context, examines aspects of colonisation in the current intellectual context, and also discusses aspects of art history that are relevant to some of the paintings. Actually some of the early images reproduced are not artworks strictly speaking, but more like historical artefacts that either set the scene for early encounters, like Abel Tasman’s skirmish in ‘Murderers Bay’; or highlight a particular event, such as Tupaia’s drawing of a Maori man exchanging a crayfish for a piece of cloth with an English officer, dated to the 1769 voyage of Captain Cook. These images are more of a documentary record.
There is an interesting tension here between the intentions of the artists, expressed in pictorial form, and the context of colonisation. As Moon explains it, the artists were mostly of the belief that their work was an ‘act of preservation’, and recorded particular figures or a way of life that was ‘receding’, as he puts it. On the other hand, the actual viewers of most of these artworks were being shown a place and people from a certain bias, sometimes painted as more picturesque than it actually was. Other, more stylised artworks reproduced here tend to enhance the ‘sublime’, such as the scene of the Waterspout in Cook’s Strait by William Hodges, which are just unrealistic.
The ‘act of preservation’ was literally true, in the sense that many of the artworks have survived and remain in museums outside of New Zealand. Indeed, some of them were painted with the Home market in mind, such as Charles Heaphy’s view of Wellington, painted in 1841 on behalf of the Wakefields’ New Zealand Company, to suggest a prospering new settlement. One of the stranger choices in the book is a painting by William Allsworth called The Emigrants (1844), which depicts a very Scottish looking family placed in the British Isles, with only a hint of the long voyage to come.
But most of the paintings reproduced in the book are about the images of Maori, their settlements, encounters with the missionaries in the Bay of Islands, and of course the conflicts with settlers. A number of these are well known images, though some are more nuanced than the casual observer would realise, including Battle at Ohaeawai(1845), by the colonial soldier Cyprian Bridge. Though this painting is more realistic than most, the general pattern is of Maori portrayed as inferior and still as mostly savages. The final chapter highlights this bias in four works: one is in a later depiction of the death of von Tempsky in battle; two are by Louis John Steele, including Spoils of the Victor, which depicts a Maori maiden tied to a pa fencepost; and Marcus King’s 1940 depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is mostly about recording the British ceremonial spectacle. Moon sees this painting, in particular, as portraying Maori as the bit players in the ongoing colonisation.
While the book is visually well presented, one has to mention a few critical points. Even though there is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book, the contents page at the beginning is in an unusual format which isn’t informative. It would also have been useful to have an index at the end.
by Paul Moon
This is a scholarly work by history professor Paul Moon, as all the references to academic sources suggest. But it is also an accessible insight into colonial history, using images and paintings as snapshots of people and unfamiliar landscapes, almost all being from a European viewpoint.
So The Art of Colonisation is a hard cover book with high quality reproductions of drawings and paintings held in museums, archives and art galleries. It is set out in short chapters that introduce a particular image, and then Moon provides a lot of contextual information about the artist and the setting, as well as his interpretation. All of this is of great interest to those serious about history.
Moon begins with a relatively lengthy introductory essay which sets the overall context, examines aspects of colonisation in the current intellectual context, and also discusses aspects of art history that are relevant to some of the paintings. Actually some of the early images reproduced are not artworks strictly speaking, but more like historical artefacts that either set the scene for early encounters, like Abel Tasman’s skirmish in ‘Murderers Bay’; or highlight a particular event, such as Tupaia’s drawing of a Maori man exchanging a crayfish for a piece of cloth with an English officer, dated to the 1769 voyage of Captain Cook. These images are more of a documentary record.
There is an interesting tension here between the intentions of the artists, expressed in pictorial form, and the context of colonisation. As Moon explains it, the artists were mostly of the belief that their work was an ‘act of preservation’, and recorded particular figures or a way of life that was ‘receding’, as he puts it. On the other hand, the actual viewers of most of these artworks were being shown a place and people from a certain bias, sometimes painted as more picturesque than it actually was. Other, more stylised artworks reproduced here tend to enhance the ‘sublime’, such as the scene of the Waterspout in Cook’s Strait by William Hodges, which are just unrealistic.
The ‘act of preservation’ was literally true, in the sense that many of the artworks have survived and remain in museums outside of New Zealand. Indeed, some of them were painted with the Home market in mind, such as Charles Heaphy’s view of Wellington, painted in 1841 on behalf of the Wakefields’ New Zealand Company, to suggest a prospering new settlement. One of the stranger choices in the book is a painting by William Allsworth called The Emigrants (1844), which depicts a very Scottish looking family placed in the British Isles, with only a hint of the long voyage to come.
But most of the paintings reproduced in the book are about the images of Maori, their settlements, encounters with the missionaries in the Bay of Islands, and of course the conflicts with settlers. A number of these are well known images, though some are more nuanced than the casual observer would realise, including Battle at Ohaeawai(1845), by the colonial soldier Cyprian Bridge. Though this painting is more realistic than most, the general pattern is of Maori portrayed as inferior and still as mostly savages. The final chapter highlights this bias in four works: one is in a later depiction of the death of von Tempsky in battle; two are by Louis John Steele, including Spoils of the Victor, which depicts a Maori maiden tied to a pa fencepost; and Marcus King’s 1940 depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is mostly about recording the British ceremonial spectacle. Moon sees this painting, in particular, as portraying Maori as the bit players in the ongoing colonisation.
While the book is visually well presented, one has to mention a few critical points. Even though there is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book, the contents page at the beginning is in an unusual format which isn’t informative. It would also have been useful to have an index at the end.
Review by SA Boyce
Title: The Art of Colonisation: Images of Europe’s Encounters with New Zealand
Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Ugly Hill Press
ISBN: 9781738583690
RRP: $55
Available: bookshops
Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Ugly Hill Press
ISBN: 9781738583690
RRP: $55
Available: bookshops
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