Lindauer arrived after decades of warfare,

in which the Maori had lost much of their land to the British.

The Czech painter suddenly found his skills much in demand,

producing portraits of Maori men and women.

To begin with, the portraits

were commissioned by European settlers

eager to preserve a record of Maori culture for posterity.

They believed that the Maori, like the Native Americans,

were a dying race.

But the Maori didn't regard themselves as a doomed people,

and by the 1890s their population was on the increase

after decades of decline.

And they were absolutely determined to forge a new future

in which their culture, their traditions,

their language and the memories of their ancestors

were all to be kept alive and kept vibrant.

And one of the ways they did this was by co-opting the talents

of Gottfried Lindauer

and commissioning him to paint their portraits,

but on terms dictated by them, to their tastes,

and according to how they wanted to be seen and to be remembered.

For Lindauer it didn't matter whether his commissions

came from Europeans or from the Maori elite.

He treated both as he would any paying customer.

Artistically, the style was always resolutely European.

But for his Maori patrons and their families,

Lindauer's paintings began to assume

an entirely new level of meaning.

As a people who had always venerated their ancestors,

many Maori came to regard the portraits of Lindauer

not just as memorials to their ancestors,

but as almost living icons

that kept their spirit alive in the present.

Now, today, Lindauer's portraits

are scattered all over the world,

in museums and galleries, but some, including this one,

have remained within a single family,

passed down through the generations.

This is Te Rangiotu, a Maori chieftain

but also a successful businessman