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The dreamer
1915
Medium
bronze
Measurements
34.3 × 48.6 × 37.5 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1922
Gallery location
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
Renowned for his elegant portrait busts of public personages, and monumental and allegorical figures, Web Gilbert was largely self-taught as a sculptor. As a child he worked as an apprentice chef in Melbourne, and it is believed his skill modelling pastry and decorations for wedding cakes aroused his subsequent interest in sculpture. After learning the art of marble carving he was drawn to the immediacy of direct casting in bronze. He met Australian Impressionist painter Frederick McCubbin during the 1880s at the National Gallery School where he was a student.
