Te Tohunga – Wilhelm Dittmer 1907
Discovered this book by complete accident whilst looking for something completely different and was hugely impressed by the quality of the illustrations. There is little information available to us about the author and illustrator Wilhelm Dittmer except that, born in Germany, he lived between 1866 and 1909 and spent around 5 years living in New Zealand at the turn of the century.
It was during this time that he orally collected the series of Maori legends that he later compiled and published in 1907 as Te Tohunga following his return to Hamburg in 1904.
There appears to be little or no other work by him available which is a great shame as I think he has a fantastic style.
The book contains 37 full and half page illustrations plus many other head and tailpieces and numerous small illustrations within the text. You can download a 300 dpi pdf page scan here or see the Flickr set here.
These are beautiful! They’re not a style I’m normally attracted to, but the talent of this amazing artist really brings these images to life.
Hello Steven, I’m one of John’s new students. Oh my, these pictures are gorgeous. I’m not really versed in art but I can sense a deep wisdom and openness in the people of these drawings. Very different than the other blogs – refreshing! Thank you for sharing.
Great images, Steve, as always, thanks for sharing.
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
This was a treasured book when I was a child (50+ years ago) and I’m thrilled to see the illustrations again. They obviously had a huge impact on me, because I remember them so clearly (I later worked in graphic design/book production).
Thank you so much for providing a downloadable pdf.