Peter McIntyre

Who was Peter McIntyre?

Peter McIntyre OBE was a New Zealand painter and author. He was the son of Peter McIntyre, a lithographic artist from Scotland, and his wife, Isabella Edith Cubitt.

Peter McIntyre was born in Dunedin and attended Otago Boys’ High School and Otago University. He attended the Slade School of Art in London and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He worked as free-lance commercial artist in Britain, and married Lillian Welbourn. In 1939 he enlisted in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, in England, trained with the NZ Anti-Tank Battery at Aldershot, and served as an anti-tank gunner with the 2NZEF in Egypt, from April 1940. He was appointed the Official New Zealand War Artist and promoted to the rank of captain by Major General Bernard Freyberg in January 1941, recording the 2NZEF in Crete, North Africa and Italy.

Returning to Dunedin in 1946, he remarried to Patricia Miles, and moved to Wellington. He was a professional portrait and landscape painter, critical of modernism and modern art. He was successful in art competitions, and was a popular painter in Australia and the USA as well as New Zealand.

In 1968 he published The Painted Years and he publish several more books. Peter McIntyre's New Zealand sold out in six days and remained in print for 20 years.