Untitled – Paterangi in the Background
Maker
Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky
Production date
Unknown
Description
This work is one of a number of sketches by Gustavus von Tempsky made of General Cameron and his troops as they advanced towards Paterangi Pa, four miles south west of Ohaupo in the Waikato. The site is famous as being the strongest pa constructed by the Kingite Maori in the Waikato and to which they retired after the Battle of Rangiriri in 1863.
Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky (1828–1868) was born at Königsberg (Kaliningrad), East Prussia. After completing school at a military academy, von Tempsky travelled to Central America and later spent time in California, Scotland and Australia. Von Tempsky arrived in New Zealand in 1862 with his wife and 3 children. By 1863 he had joined the military forces and spent the following 5 years until his death by gunshot in numerous battles between British forces and Maori. Although he was not considered an accomplished artist of the time, von Tempsky’s considerable catalogue of sketches and watercolours depicting battle sites and dramatised battle scenes act as a lasting record of the Land Wars.
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Object detail
133 x 224mm (image)
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