Maurice Poulton

Maurice Alec Poulton was an artist and designer primarily known for his iconic promotional tourism posters for Aotearoa New Zealand, many created during his time as an artist working for the Railways Studios, a government agency, operated by the New Zealand Railways.

The Railways Studios were established in 1920 to promote the railways–and New Zealand in general–as a tourist destination through promotional posters, pamphlets, billboards, maps and pictorial postage stamps. The studios also developed material for numerous other government and business clients including the Tourist Department, local authorities, and chambers of commerce. This material was distributed at stations, inside carriages, on trackside hoardings, and overseas for over 67 years (1920–1987). As John Daly-Peoples said, “These images managed to create an image of the country as a magical wonderland of almost mythical proportions”

Born and raised in Wellington, Poulton secured a job as a cadet artist for the Railways in 1925 straight out of school based on the strength of his drawing, joining John Holmwood and following in the footsteps of Gordon Tovey. He was appointed designing artist in 1938, but served in both the army and air force during WWII. Returning to the Railway Studios after the war, he was made a supervising artist in 1956. He retired in 1965, after completing 40 years’ service, but carried on creating artwork and gained particular recognition as a landscape artist, receiving seven awards in the Kelliher Art Prize. Henry Kelliher also commissioned Poulton to create landscape paintings for DB Hotels, with a number ending up in DB calendars in the 1960s and 70s. In his later years he represented Wellington and Auckland in Senior Rugby, was a keen fly-fisher, and a life member of Wellington’s Onslow Club.

See also:

• ‘Death of noted artist’, New Zealand Herald, 31 October 1983.
• Poulton, Maurice Alec, 1909-1983 | Items | National Library of New Zealand
• Peter Alsop, Neill Atkinson Katherine Milburn and Richard Wolfe, ‘Railways Studios: How a government design studio helped build New Zealand’, (Te Papa Press: 2020)
• John Daly-Peoples, ‘How the railways helped create New Zealand’, NZ Arts Review, 18 Nov 2020