A Taste for Britain: The History and Significance of Victorian Paintings in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Collections

Victorian paintings in Aotearoa New Zealand’s major art institutions are a largely untapped resource in art historical scholarship. This is remarkable: these works constitute an important component of the collections and are critical to charting institutional origins and development. This study aims to illuminate their cultural significance in Aotearoa New Zealand. This thesis approaches the Victorian paintings held in Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū by delving into their acquisition, display contexts and histories. It reveals that the narratives surrounding the acquisition and display of these artworks are connected to ideas of taste for elements of British culture and constructions of Aotearoa New Zealand’s identity. Formal and stylistic analysis of the paintings provides insight into the aesthetic, social and cultural concerns evident in Victorian art as a whole and their place in Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural history. This mode of analysis aids in professing the paintings’ art historical significance. The study also engages in an examination of exhibition history, using both permanent holdings and visiting exhibitions to ascertain patterns and influences that filter into wider considerations of the socio-political, economic and cultural environments of Aotearoa New Zealand. In addition, the thesis considers looming questions about how we understand these paintings in a contemporary context. Notions of Aotearoa New Zealand’s history and identity increasingly diversified in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The place of the colonial cultural heritage that the Victorian paintings represent became less assured and exhibitions featuring them became increasingly rare. To understand the place of these works in Aotearoa New Zealand culture, we need to balance historical concerns with the challenges presented by ever-evolving notions of identities, heritage and histories. Victorian paintings in Aotearoa New Zealand are vital to exploring these questions and thus require closer attention. Ultimately, there is space, both on gallery walls and in scholarly discourse, to give prominence to these eclectic works and their complex meanings.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Samarasinghe, Anya

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Tyler, Linda
• Montgomerie, Deborah
• Woodward, Robin

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/64674

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/64674