Thomas Ryan
Date of birth
1864
Date of death
1927
Place of birth
Biography
A noted rugby footballer as well as an artist, Ryan was a leading player in the first All Black team to tour Australia in 1884. At the age of 26 he left New Zealand, where he had been brought by his mother from London when he was one year old, and went to Paris to study painting. At the Academie Julian he met Charles Frederick Goldie and they became lifelong friends. After three years in Paris he returned and married Mary Wharepapa, who introduced her husband's friend, Goldie, to many of his portrait subjects.
- Lara Strongman, Curator of Fine Arts
- Lara Strongman, Curator of Fine Arts
