English: Pope Pius XII died on October 9 1958. He was the head of the Catholic Church from March 2 1939 up until his death. His pontificate coincided with the Second World War and commencement of the Cold War. During the war he maintained Vatican neutrality, used diplomacy to aid the victims of the war and lobby for peace, and spoke out against race based murders and other atrocities.

New Zealand artist Peter McIntyre painted the Pope by arrangement of the British Minister to the Vatican, following a request from Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg. The artist described how - "His face, deeply lined, was one of the most arresting I have seen, with magnificent eyes and a fine Roman nose." (Peter McIntyre: War Artist, 1981)

McIntyre was born in Dunedin on 4 July 1910, the son of Peter McIntyre and his wife, Isabella Edith Cubitt. McIntyre was educated at Otago Boys’ High School, and also received art lessons from the Dunedin artist Alfred O’Keefe. From 1935 until 1939 he worked as a free-lance commercial artist in Britain, while also exhibiting contemporary art works, influenced by the English avant-garde and French cubism. Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, McIntyre enlisted with the 34th Anti-tank Battery, a New Zealand unit formed in London, and was sent as a gunner to Egypt. In Egypt he provided illustrations for the war magazine 'Parade', and as well as doing advertisements he sketched members of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF). In January 1941, McIntyre was appointed New Zealand’s official war artist and promoted to the rank of captain by Major General Bernard Freyberg. His work in this role covered the campaigns in Greece, Crete, the Western Desert, Tripolitani, Tunisia and Italy. He was promoted to the rank of Major at Cassino in Italy. Exhibitions of McIntyre’s artworks toured New Zealand both during and after the Second World War. Immediately following the war he worked as an artist in Dunedin, producing portraits and landscapes. In the decades following the war McIntyre won a number of art awards, and published eight books. He was awarded an OBE in 1970, and died in Wellington on 11 September 1995.

Archives Reference: AAAC 898 Box 128/ NCWA 202 collections.archives.govt.nz

This work and others from the Archives New Zealand War Art Collection can be viewed online at warart.archives.govt.nz/

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