Louis de Sainson, the artist with French explorer Dumont d’Urville's 1826–27 expedition to New Zealand, made these portraits of Māori from Tolaga Bay and Cape Terawhiti in 1826. Four of the people are men, and the central figure is a woman. Three of the men have elaborate hairstyles, and the wide variations between them mean these styles cannot be characterised by the simplified term 'topknot'. One man, at top right, has a white-tipped huia feather protruding from a thick central tuft. The man at lower left has his hair in a complex arrangement at the back and over the brow.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
A-191-041
Hand-coloured lithograph by Louis Auguste de Sainson
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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