Category Archives: Visual Art

Although it is for her Māori portraits that she is best known, critics have generally claimed that Ida Carey’s finest work was done in the 1920s and 1930s, and that much of her later work contains technical deficiencies, especially in her use of colour. This perhaps explains why she has been ignored in New Zealand art history literature. However, her significance both as an artist with great popular appeal and as a major contributor to the development of fine arts in Waikato cannot be denied.

As a working artist, Elizabeth Wallwork established a career in portraiture mainly for private clients. She was described as one of the foremost exponents of pastel portraiture in New Zealand. She also painted in oil: miniatures and portraits of women, children and, as her reputation grew, many prominent Christchurch people. She painted and exhibited landscapes, and in later life submitted impressionistic flower paintings to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.

Perhaps best remembered for her portrait paintings, Copeland had a particular interest in Māori subjects. In 1937 the Auckland Star art critic described her study of a girl, ‘Rita Hikiora’, as ‘one of the few portrait studies worthy of attention’ at the time. Another well-known work, ‘Marie’, was a delicate and sentimental portrait of a young Māori girl, who ‘looks tremulously out on life’.