Biography

Peter McIntyre

1910-1995

Peter McIntyre was born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1910. His father was a painter and graphic artist who was a pioneer of lithography techniques in New Zealand and the founder of Dunedin’s Caxton Printing Company. As a boy Peter McIntyre’s artistic pursuits were supported by his father who encouraged his painting and signed him up for paining lessons under the Dunedin artist Alfred O’Keeffe (1858 - 1941).

Peter McIntyre was educated at Otago Boys’ High School and then attended the University of Otago in Dunedin, where he initially studied journalism and drew cartoons for university capping publications. McIntyre soon abandoned this course of study to attend The Slade School of Fine Art in London. McIntyre studied at The Slade from 1931 - 1934 where his tutors included the British War artist Randolph Schwabe (1885 – 1948) who was the Professor of Fine Art, and Allan Gwynne-Jones (1892-1982) who taught portraiture. His classmates included the portrait painter Anthony Devas (1911-1958) and the cartoonist Osbert Lancaster (1908-1986).

At The Slade McIntyre studied old masters and classical draughtsmanship techniques. During his final year at The Slade McIntyre received several prizes graduating with awards in composition and figure drawing.

McIntyre’s education in London also exposed him to developments in European modernism that had not yet reached New Zealand and he made several visits to the Tate. After completing his studies, McIntyre remained in Britain and worked as a commercial artist. He illustrated for articles and serials in magazines including Pearson’s Magazine, Nash’s and Woman’s Day. He also painted murals for restaurants and painted for productions at the Sadlers Wells Theatre and The London Coliseum.

In 1937 he married the English portrait painter and model Lillian Welbourn in London.

When War broke out in 1939 McIntyre enlisted as a gunner with the 34th Anti-tank Battery, a New Zealand volunteer unit formed in London. After training the unit left England for Egypt, where it was initially based at Maadi Camp on the outskirts of Cairo. Whilst in Egypt McIntyre contributed illustrations to the British war magazine Parade and worked on the divisional Christmas Card . In his own time he also drew landscapes and portraits of fellow soldiers.

In January 1941 General Freyberg (who was nicknamed The Salamander by Winston Churchill) promoted McIntyre to the rank of Captain and appointed him as a New Zealand Official War Artist.

From 1941-45 McIntyre chronicled the activities of the 2nd NZEF throughout Crete, Libya, Tunisia, Tripoli and at Monte Cassino.

McIntyre regularly sketched close to the frontlines and would later work up his paintings from these sketches. These works were frequently published in magazines such as Illustrated London News, Studio and the New Zealand Listener.

McIntyres artworks as Official War Artist played an essential part of ANZAC reporting during the War, and are now considered documents of great significance to New Zealand history. His painting Wounded at Cassino, 1944 holds a particularly iconic status. The painting is held at at the National Archives in Wellington, along with many other Peter McIntyre works from this period.

Peter McIntyre spoke on the necessity for official war artists in a 1943 episode of Weekly Review (Episode No. 119).

“I think it was really proved in the last War by people like Augustus John and (Sir William) Orpen… they proved that the human being is more sensitive to atmosphere and can somehow record in colour the epic deeds of a War far more than the camera can.”

“In North Africa we found that so often photographic shots showed odd figures wandering across the desert. Where as in a painting you could show what actually happened; the magnificent sweep of artillery across the desert wastes…That colour itself was something that seemed to show in pictures what people really wanted to know about the War”.

Peter McIntyre spoke on the necessity for official war artists in a 1943 episode of Weekly Review (Episode No. 119).

New Zealand cartoonist Neville Colvin depicts Peter McIntyre in this cartoon captioned ‘Don’t forget my stripes captain McIntyre’. In the cartoon Peter McIntyre paints a portrait titled ‘Kiwi Peeling Spuds’. - Illustrated NZEF Times (NZ Expeditionary Forces) March 12 1945.

During the war Peter McIntyre had solidified his artistic style. Touring exhibitions of his artworks during and immediately after the war years had established his reputation among the New Zealand public as a professional artist, so on his return to New Zealand in 1946 McIntyre was well positioned to forge a career as an artist. He set up his studio in Princes Street, Dunedin; modestly listing himself in 1947 as ‘a cartoonist’.

McIntyre became one of the few artists practising in New Zealand at the time who sustained a living from his career in painting. He earned renown for his landscape and portrait painting and mounted several sell-out shows throughout the country. Preferring to paint outdoors and immerse himself in his chosen subject, McIntyre clearly belongs to the rich tradition of plein-air painters.

He maintained his friendship with General Freyberg, who in the post war years was appointed as The Governor General of New Zealand. Freyberg provided McIntyre with artistic support and patronage.

In January 1949 Peter and Lillian McIntyre were divorced by mutual consent. In Dunedin on 12 February Peter McIntyre married Patricia (Patti) Miles, the couple soon moved to Wellington where they raised their two children and lived together until McIntyres death in 1995. In the late 1950’s McIntyre built his own house in Hoggard Street, Vogeltown, from a do-it-yourself manual.

McIntyre served on the council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts from 1959-1964. During this time he won numerous national art competitions including the Kelliher Art Award (1959), the watercolour section of the National Bank Art Awards (1960), as well as the Hay’s Art Competition (1962).

Though McIntyre’s artwork was popular with the wider New Zealand public, his art was not without critics. Commenting on his win at the Hay’s Art Competition one critic said his work was ‘rich in the qualities which make a good calendar picture’.

In 1995 The Auckland journalist Robert Gilmore wrote of McIntyres opponents:

“New Zealand’s professional art critics scorned, even pilloried McIntyre because he was they said, a commercial artist….As to these critics, I don’t think they cut much ice with Kiwi’s…. New Zealanders always appreciated McIntyre as an artist”.

Following the success of his exhibitions Peter McIntyre began publishing books of his artwork. Published in 1962, his first book was an illustrated biography entitled The Painted Years. His following publication Peter McIntyre’s New Zealand was released in 1964 and was so popular that it sold out within six days.

The McIntyre family frequently holidayed in Kākahi where Peter McIntyre was an avid trout fisher and held a small painters studio. Many of McIntyres artworks from this time feature trout fishing locations and the township of Kākahi . He published a book on Kākahi in 1972, and in 2021 Peter McIntyre’s Kākahi paintings were displayed alongside the photography of his daughter Sara McIntyre in an exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata.

Within McIntyre’s New Zealand paintings are themes of conservation and the connection between New Zealanders and the land. This is reflected in his writings on the New Zealand landscape. In his 1979 publication McIntyre Country: New Zealand Landscapes, he wrote:

“I am a New Zealander. That is not just my nationality; it is, I admit, a state of mind. I am so absorbed in this country that being a New Zealander has become a sort of profession for me. For much of the time it fills my days and demands my time…. I mean I paint the place; I write about it; I fight for the preservation of its countryside. I am happiest by its lakes and rivers. I am besotted by it.”

Between 1962 and 1981 Peter McIntyre published 8 books and undertook numerous trips around the globe to paint and write, often accompanied by his wife Patti. McIntyre documented his experiences in Antarctica, Hong Kong, the Pacific, and the American West in volumes illustrated with high-quality colour reproductions of his paintings. These books continue to be collectors’ items to this day.

McIntyre’s contribution to New Zealand art history was recognised in December 1970 with an OBE for his work as an author and for his accomplishments in fine art.

In the 1970s and 1980s his work continued to draw attention and appear in New Zealand headlines, frequently achieving high prices at exhibitions and auctions. In 1981 the poor care of his war paintings by the Department of Internal Affairs drew criticism from the public.

A retrospective show of McIntyre’s war paintings was held at the Wellington City Gallery in 1995 to popular acclaim and attendance surpassing 22,000. On the 11th of September 1995 eight days before the close of the exhibition, Peter McIntyre passed away in Wellington.