For the peoples of the Tainui Waka, Taupiri is the maunga tapu, or mountain of spiritual significance. Kiingitanga leaders are laid to rest on the mountain, as are many Tainui families of the Waikato subtribes.
Walter Wright is one of the most prolific Aotearoa New Zealand landscape artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Born in Nottingham, England, Wright emigrated with his mother and brother in 1877 and settled in Auckland. Wright and his brother, Frank, collaborated on a publication, New Zealand: Painted by F. & W. Wright, which was launched in 1908.
This watercolour painting (most likely painted ‘en plein air’ style out in the open country) was created by Wright during the very last years of Kiingi Tawhiao’s reign.
Critics largely ignored Wright’s work in his lifetime, so there is little written about his painting, but he is represented in many major museum and gallery collections.