Matthew Flinders and Web Gilbert
Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 7:05 am
Web Gilbert was an Australian sculptor. Sadly, he seems to have been pretty much forgotten.
Gilbert was a good friend of C. J. Dennis. He was a key member of the "Sunnyside" circle, which enabled Dennis to complete the writing of "The Sentimental Bloke".
Gilbert was born in 1867, the same year as Henry Lawson. Completely self taught, he actually began his working life as a cake decorator. He later moved in to sculpture, first marble, then bronze.
Gilbert had a studio in Fitzroy, where he did everything himself. This included carting clay in wheelbarrows to make moulds. His career was hijacked by the First World War, whereby he ended up being commissioned to make statues to commemorate famous victories, and later worked extensively on the various dioramas in the War Museum in Canberra. I don't think it was what he had planned for himself, but it paid the bills and fed his family.
Gilbert died in 1925 - three years after Lawson - at the age of 58. He simply dropped dead one day while wheeling a heavy barrow. Much of his work was incomplete at the time of his death, and had to be completed by others.
This bronze statue of Matthew Flinders is probably his greatest and most famous work. It was completed in 1923, two years prior to his death, but he died before it was finally installed.
It is positioned in an iconic part of the Melbourne CBD - the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets - just outside St. Paul's cathedral. Thousands of people pass the statue every day and do not give it a second look.
I rang the Melbourne City Council last year to enquire about further details relating to the statue and its installation, and they were embarrassed to tell me they actually had very little information about it at all. They did point me in the direction of the Public Records Office, and I hope to get there one day.
An elderly friend of mine with a great interest in art and sculpture recently told me he had admired it for many years, and had assumed it was made in England. It wasn't. It was made by a Victorian born sculptor in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.
Next time you are in Melbourne, check it out if you have a chance. It is diagonally opposite Flinders Street railway station.
You get a great view from the upstairs window of the McDonalds restaurant across the street.
Gilbert was a good friend of C. J. Dennis. He was a key member of the "Sunnyside" circle, which enabled Dennis to complete the writing of "The Sentimental Bloke".
Gilbert was born in 1867, the same year as Henry Lawson. Completely self taught, he actually began his working life as a cake decorator. He later moved in to sculpture, first marble, then bronze.
Gilbert had a studio in Fitzroy, where he did everything himself. This included carting clay in wheelbarrows to make moulds. His career was hijacked by the First World War, whereby he ended up being commissioned to make statues to commemorate famous victories, and later worked extensively on the various dioramas in the War Museum in Canberra. I don't think it was what he had planned for himself, but it paid the bills and fed his family.
Gilbert died in 1925 - three years after Lawson - at the age of 58. He simply dropped dead one day while wheeling a heavy barrow. Much of his work was incomplete at the time of his death, and had to be completed by others.
This bronze statue of Matthew Flinders is probably his greatest and most famous work. It was completed in 1923, two years prior to his death, but he died before it was finally installed.
It is positioned in an iconic part of the Melbourne CBD - the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets - just outside St. Paul's cathedral. Thousands of people pass the statue every day and do not give it a second look.
I rang the Melbourne City Council last year to enquire about further details relating to the statue and its installation, and they were embarrassed to tell me they actually had very little information about it at all. They did point me in the direction of the Public Records Office, and I hope to get there one day.
An elderly friend of mine with a great interest in art and sculpture recently told me he had admired it for many years, and had assumed it was made in England. It wasn't. It was made by a Victorian born sculptor in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.
Next time you are in Melbourne, check it out if you have a chance. It is diagonally opposite Flinders Street railway station.
You get a great view from the upstairs window of the McDonalds restaurant across the street.
Not an Aussie see but the first to use the term Australia on maps