Collection Online
Frederick McCubbin
Medium
marble
Measurements
85.6 × 47.8 × 43.2 cm
Inscription
incised in marble under right shoulder: C. Web Gilbert 1905
Accession Number
3240-D3
Department
Australian Sculpture
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of J. A. Heyman, 1930
Gallery location
Not on display
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 inherent to direct casting in bronze. He met Australian Impressionist painter Frederick McCubbin during the 1880s at the National Gallery School where he was a student.