Paul Raphael Montford

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Paul Raphael Montford (1 November 1868 – 15 January 1938) was an English-born sculptor, active in Australia.

[edit] Early life

Montford was born in Kentish Town, London, the son of Horace Montford, also a sculptor, who won a gold medal at the Royal Academy schools in 1869. Paul learned modelling from his father and later studied at the Royal Academy schools and was considered to have been one of the most brilliant students that ever attended them. He won the gold medal and travelling scholarship for sculpture in 1891 and for many years after was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy exhibitions. Among his larger works in Great Britain are four groups on the Kelvin bridge^[1], Glasgow, groups for the city hill, Cardiff, and a statue of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman at Stirling.

[edit] Career in Australia

Commissions were scarce in England, Montford decided to come to Australia in 1923 believing the light would be conducive to sculpture. For some time he had difficulty in getting commissions. He taught at the Gordon Institute of Technology in Geelong, Victoria, and in July 1924 exhibited at the Geelong Art Gallery. When Charles Web Gilbert died in 1925, Montford was asked to complete the design for the memorial at Port Said; but there were difficulties in carrying out the work in Australia, and eventually it was given to Sir Bertram Mackennal in London. The winning of the competition for the sculpture for the Shrine of Remembrance at Melbourne gave Montford many years of work. He designed and modelled the four groups each 23 feet (7 m) high, and the two tympana each 56 feet (17 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) high in the centre.

Montford was president of the Victorian Artists Society 1930-2. His generally good work as president was occasionally marred by a certain lack of tact. He showed some excellent work about this period including the bronzes, "Water Nymph" and "Peter Pan", now in the Queen Victoria Gardens, Melbourne, and "The Court Favourite" in the Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne. Other work includes relief portraits of eight Australian statesmen in the King's Hall, Parliament House, Canberra, and the war memorial for the Australian Club, Sydney. He was greatly encouraged and pleased on learning in 1934, that his statue of Adam Lindsay Gordon at Melbourne had been awarded the gold medal of the Royal British Society of Sculptors for the best piece of sculpture of the year. Another excellent piece of work is his vigorous statue of John Wesley in front of Wesley Church, Melbourne. His George Higinbotham near the treasury is less successful. He is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria at Melbourne by "Atalanta", the "Spirit of Anzac", and two busts, and he is also represented in the national gallery at Adelaide.

[edit] Legacy

Montford died after a short illness from leukaemia on 15 January 1938 in Richmond, Victoria. He married in 1912 Marian, daughter of W. J. Dibain, a capable painter in oils, who survived him with two daughters and a son.

Montford refused to be influenced by the modernist school. He was convinced it was a passing phase in art. The Greeks and the great Italians of the Renaissance appealed to him most. He was undoubtedly a sculptor of ability whose work showed good modelling, grace, careful arrangement, and vigour, as the occasion demanded. There was no great originality of mind, but within his limits he was a most capable artist.

[edit] References

• Serle, Percival. (1949). "Montford, Paul Raphael". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
• Jenny Zimmer, 'Montford, Paul Raphael (1868 - 1938)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, MUP, 1986, p. 557

1. ^ Kelvin Way Bridge. Retrieved on January 31, 2007.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.