Family members descended from Aotearoa's first professional portrait artist, William Beetham, are bringing together paintings he made of himself, his wife and his ten children for an exhibition called William's Legacy. Some of the works have never been on public show until now. The Beetham family had been planning a reunion, but when that became impossible they decided having the paintings all together in the Aratoi Gallery in Masterton would be the next best thing. William Beetham emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1855 and made a home for them in the Wairarapa. Lynn Freeman talks to Jo Beetham who's married to one of William's descendants, and to the exhibition's curator Jo Torr, who explains William's place in our art history. William's Legacy: Beetham Portraits opens at Aratoi on the 12th of March.