page_title: Charles Heaphy
section_title: Service with the New Zealand Company
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Heaphy / Service with the New Zealand Company
caption_attribution_description: [Heaphy, Charles], 1820-1881 :Te Rauparaha, N.Z. chief. [1839]. Reference Number: A-146-006 Shows head and shoulders portrait of Te Rauparaha with moko, earring, and wrapped in a blanket around the shoulders. Key terms: 1 image, categorised under Ethnographic images, Portraits and Photographs, related to d Te Rauparaha, Ngati Toa, Rangatira, Men, Maori and Maori - Moko. Part of: [Heaphy, Charles], 1820-1881 :Te Rauparaha, N.Z. chief. [1839]., Reference Number A-146-006 (1 digitised items) Extent: 1 b&amp;w photo-mechanical print(s)Photographic print of wash drawing, approximately 250 x 200 mm.. Vertical imageSingle art work Conditions governing access to original: Partial restriction - Use photographic copy in preference to original. Other copies available: File PrintIn Drawings &amp; Prints under Artist/Title (DFP-005975) Usage: You can search, browse, print and download items from this website for research and personal study. You are welcome to reproduce the above image(s) on your blog or another website, but please maintain the integrity of the image (i.e. don't crop, recolour or overprint it), reproduce the image's caption information and link back to here (http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=13601). If you would like to use the above image(s) in a different way (e.g. in a print publication), or use the transcription or translation, permission must be obtained. More information about copyright and usage can be found on the Copyright and Usage page of the NLNZ web site.
context_page_description: Charles Heaphy VC was an English-born New Zealand explorer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest military award for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the first soldier of the New Zealand armed forces to be awarded the VC. He was also a noted artist and executed several works of early colonial life in New Zealand.
  Born in England, Heaphy joined the New Zealand Company in 1839. He arrived in New Zealand later that year and was commissioned to create art for advertising the country to potential English migrants. Much of the next two and half years was spent travelling and executing paintings of landscapes and life around the centre of the country. When his contract with the company ended in 1842, he lived in Nelson for several years and explored large parts of the West Coast. He later moved north to Auckland to take up employment as a surveyor.
  During the Invasion of the Waikato, his militia unit was mobilised and it was his conduct at Paterangi, where he rescued British soldiers under fire, that saw him awarded the VC.
context_section_description: Heaphy's contract with the company was for three years and his primary role was to create art that could be used as advertising for the company. In doing so he travelled extensively around the country and occasionally participated in overland treks, living out of a tent or staying with local Māori. He also sailed around parts of the country aboard the Tory and learned surveying from its captain. Another employee of the company travelling on the Tory was Ernst Dieffenbach, who taught Heaphy basic geology.
  Heaphy painted a variety of subjects including landscapes, flora and fauna and notable Māori, including the chieftain Te Rauparaha. The success of the company depended on attracting emigrants to New Zealand so his work was almost always intended to present the country and its inhabitants in its best light. Heaphy was at times exposed to some danger; on an expedition to the Chatham Islands, his party intervened in a skirmish between two warring tribes and he was wounded in the leg. It was unlikely to have been a serious wound for a few weeks later, he went on a trek back in New Zealand to the Taranaki Region, where he produced some of his more notable landscapes.
  From October 1840, Heaphy was based in Wellington and with a friend built a small cottage, that allowed him to execute several views of Wellington Harbour, which was much used in advertising for the New Zealand Company. A few months later, in early 1841, he joined Arthur Wakefield on the expedition that led to the founding of Nelson. Heaphy was among several employees of the New Zealand Company to scout the area around Tasman Bay, before the location for Nelson was decided and executed several paintings highlighting the quality of the land intended for settlement. By late 1841, Heaphy's services as an artist were no longer required, given the number of works that he had produced and Wakefield decided to send him to London, to make a report to the company directors. He took nearly six months to reach London, by which time his three-year contract had expired. The directors were impressed with his report and it was published as a book entitled Narrative of a Residence in Various Parts of New Zealand.
caption: A sketch by Heaphy of the Māori chieftain Te Rauparaha
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