Peter McIntyre - Hong Kong

Peter McIntyre was born in Dunedin in 1910. The son of a painter and graphic artist, McIntyre rose to become one of New Zealand’s most popular and celebrated artists of the mid-twentieth century. His works remain highly sought after for their diversity of subject and their ability to convey the essence of a scene through an array of media.

McIntyre began his artistic career by completing a bachelor of fine arts at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1931 -1934), after which he worked as a commercial artist in Britain and became heavily influenced by the European avant-garde movements that developed in the 1930s, particularly Cubism. 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. Sent to Egypt with his platoon, McIntyre was soon contributing illustrations to the British war magazine Parade. In January 1941 General Freyberg appointed McIntyre as New Zealand’s official war artist. McIntyre went on to chronicle the activities of 2nd NZEF throughout Europe and North Africa.

McIntyre returned to New Zealand in February 1946 as a respected and established artist, setting up a studio in Dunedin where he quickly became a renowned portrait and landscape painter. He soon received numerous commissions; one of the most important of which was a commission by Major Harry Stanley, an ex-Grenadier Guards officer, who asked McIntyre to paint a series of pictures of Hong Kong. In McIntyre’s words Major Harry Stanley, quietly and charmingly promoted Hong Kong.