Fine Art Including The Sir Robert Jones Estate Thursday, 26 March 2026 / 6:00 pm start

Gottfried Lindauer - Heeni Hirini (Ana Rupene) and Child

Realised: $350,000 plus premium

Lot Details

Gottfried Lindauer (1839 - 1926) Heeni Hirini (Ana Rupene) and Child oil on canvas signed & dated 1890 lower left 850 x 670mm John Harding and Emma Harding (née unknown) were married in Southampton, United Kingdom, in 1841 and emigrated that same year to New Zealand aboard the Birman, arriving in Wellington in March 1842. Harding later acquired extensive grazing land between the Tuki Tuki and Waipawa Rivers in Hawke’s Bay, where the family established their residence in 1855. Emma Harding bore thirteen children. Between 1882 and 1883 the family constructed Mount Vernon Homestead, now recognised as an important historic property in the Hawke’s Bay region. It was here that the Hardings formed a close association with Lindauer, who regularly travelled from Woodville to stay with the family, using the homestead as a studio. During these visits he painted numerous local subjects, including several members of the Harding family, many of whose portraits remain in the family’s collection. In the late 1890s John Harding acquired Ana Rupene and child [Heeni Hirini and child] directly from the artist, along with Lindauer’s 1895 portrait of Renata Kawepō. Both works survived the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake and were later placed on long-term loan to the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua until restoration of Mount Vernon Homestead was completed. (The portrait of Renata Kawepō was sold through Dunbar Sloane in 2017.) The life dates of Ana Rupene—also known as Ana Reupene Whetuki and Heeni Phillips—are not recorded. She lived and died at Manaia on the Coromandel Peninsula and was a woman of mana grounded in her Ngāti Maru whakapapa. Her son was remembered within Ngāti Maru for his exceptional ability to recite whakapapa and is believed to have died in his late teens. Lindauer based the composition on a studio photograph taken by the Foy Brothers of Thames and is one of the most recognisable works in his oeuvre. A version exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St Louis World’s Fair) was awarded a gold medal; the honour was conferred on Lindauer’s patron, Henry Partridge, rather than the artist himself. That version is now held by the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Other versions are in the collections of the National Library of Australia and the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. H L Walker