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Charles Frederick Goldie Head of a Nubian 1896 oil on canvas signed C. F. Goldie and inscribed Study/PARIS in brushpoint lower right 385 x 330mm   PROVENANCE Private collection, Hawkes Bay. Gifted by bequest 1985; Private Collection, Hawkes Bay. Gifted by bequest c1970s; Private Collection, Hawkes Bay.   EXHIBITIONS Goldie, Christchurch Art Gallery, 12 December 1998 - 7 March 1999; Goldie, Auckland City Art Gallery, 28 June - 28 October 1997.   LITERATURE Alister Taylor and Jan Glen, C F Goldie: Prints, Drawings & Criticism (Publication Graphics: Martinborough, 1979), 251.   Charles Frederick Goldie – Head of a Nubian Essay by NEIL TALBOT   Charles Frederick Goldie is an artist whose work has captured the public imagination like no other. The painter is one of New Zealand’s most famous and renowned, with a fascinating catalogue of work made between the 1890s and the 1940s. He is perhaps best known for his distinctive portraits of Māori elders, which have been the subject of both theft and forgery, acclaim and disdain.¹ His work is instantly recognisable; it was made with a level of technical finesse that is unmatched in contemporary painting.   While he was born in Auckland, and first developed his artistic talents there, 22-year-old Goldie travelled to Europe to further his studies in 1893.² The introduction to Alister Taylor’s 1979 tome C.F. Goldie: Prints, Drawings & Criticism begins as follows. “In the 1890s, when C. F. Goldie was a student and painter in Paris, France was in a cultural and artistic ferment. The masters of the Impressionist movement were at work; there were exhibitions of Monet, Manet and Renoir; the reputation of Degas was at its height. In England, where Goldie studied under Sir James Guthrie, the names of Oscar Wilde and Whistler were legend […]. How could any young student except perhaps the most insensitive escape the excitement and effect of all these influences?”³ Needless to say, directly experiencing Europe in such heady times had an effect on Goldie's painting.   Head of a Nubian, an oil painting from 1896 was painted by Goldie in Paris and is inscribed accordingly. It is a remarkable work for a number of reasons. Firstly, though its subject is not a Māori elder, it is immediately recognisable as a Goldie; the artists’ characteristic flair in portraiture shines through. Secondly, the work was created by the artist at the age of twenty six, when he was developing his craft in the intoxicating environment of Impressionist Paris. That lends the work a particular romantic flair – the young, idealistic artist testing his metal in the cultural crossroads of the Earth. Finally, for all the obvious finesse of the portraiture, the treatment of paint in the background is loose, gestural, expressive. In this one can detect the environmental influence, the painterly flourish of Renoir or Degas, and sense the thrill of the young artist mastering his abilities.   What is most impressive about this painting is how it brings together the youthful exuberance of a young artist abroad with the distinctive mastery of portraiture which has made Goldie a household name. One might then see this painting as sitting at a developmental crossroads – the step where the precocious youth moved into his power as a master artist. These are but a handful of the reasons why this work is an extraordinary painting. As all great paintings do, it invites the viewer to look, engage, and wonder.   1 Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 2 Ibid. 3 Alister Taylor, C.F. Goldie: Prints, Drawings & Criticism, 1979. Page 1.