Kōrero: Creative and intellectual expatriates

Raymond McIntyre (1879–1933), who painted this brooding self-portrait as a young man, studied and taught at the Canterbury College School of Art. His work was not always appreciated by local critics, and this was a factor in his departure to London, where he arrived in February 1909. High expectations of learning from William Nicholson, George Lambert and Walter Sickert, all of whom taught him briefly, were not met and he concluded that his only option was to be himself. He exhibited his work frequently in London over the next decade, and also became involved in literary, musical and theatrical circles. His achievements as an artist were not recognised in the land of his birth until the 1960s, long after his death.