The signed and dated oil on canvas A Centenarian featured Kapi Kapi, an Arawa chieftainess who died in 1902 aged 102.
The painting was one of six by Goldie sold through the Otago Art Society in Dunedin in 1915 and it was bought by prominent Dunedin lawyer Alfred Hanlon.
University of Victoria art historian Roger Blackley told the Otago Daily Times last night the painting was referred to at the time as an "ethnograph" - a small, highly detailed photo-like painting Goldie found more saleable than his larger paintings.
Mr Blackley said Goldie was already famous, but "taste had moved on".
He sold six on his visit to Otago on that occasion, ranging in price between 13 and 21 guineas.
"Goldie did have success in these different centres because he was like the ultra-famous New Zealand artist."
One of Mr Hanlon's two grandchildren still in Dunedin, Gillian Fleming, said she was not aware of the Goldie, did not know where it had been for the past 95 years or how plans for the auction had come about, but she was curious to find out.
Two years ago, a painting bought by Mr Hanlon in 1901, a Frances Hodgkins work called Old Woman Caudebec was offered for sale by the estate of his grandson, the Rev Blair Robertson, of Auckland.
It was bought by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery for an undisclosed sum.
The painting was the centrepiece of an exhibition celebrating Hodgkins' birthday, in 1869.
Goldie painted Kapi Kapi at least 22 times and a similar painting of her sold in 2008 for $330,000.
Kapi Kapi was renowned for her moku and was believed to be the only Maori woman with a rare spiral nostril tattoo to have been painted by Goldie.
Richard Thomson, from the International Art Centre in Parnell, said the Hanlon Goldie had not been on the market since it was first bought, giving it a "flawless provenance", which was very important in the art world.
Mr Hanlon died in 1944.
The painting would be included in a sale of important, early and rare art.
