PROLIFIC PIONEERING SCULPTOR CAPTURED WILD AUSTRALIA PERFORMER

An intriguing item  spotted  in the  Art Gallery of New South Wales  by  our  wandering  Shipping Reporter is this  l897  head of  an Aborigine, identified as  Kunkardi,  made  by  early   Australian  sculpor   James  White  (l861-1918) ,who produced  many public  sculptures  for  Sydney  and  Melbourne . 

According to the gallery , Kunkardi, from the Gulf region in Queensland, was one of the 27 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men who were conscripted to perform in the exploitative 'Wild  Australia Show' that toured Australia in the 1890s.

White appears to have modelled the   figure, in neo-classical , ennobling  style ,  from a  promotional  photograph of  the  troupe  taken by Henry King in l893. It was originally exhibited in l897 as  Conamdatta, a northern  Queensland  Aboriginal man . 

King's photograph, the   gallery  states, served to identify the subject as  Kunkardi  and  renamed  White's sculpture.

It was   donated to the  gallery  in  l924  by the prominent  Italian artist A.  Dattilo-Rubbo ( l870-l955) ,who established an  art school in Sydney in 1898 which ran for  43 years and  influenced  many  up  and  coming artists.

Recently Little Darwin   ran a post about  a  June  l926 copy of  the  London  art magazine ,Old Master  Drawings,  for students and  collectors  ,  found in Townsville  , which had once  been in  the  A. Dattilo- Rubbo   art  school  in Sydney . The  following  stamped name of the school appeared on many of its pages, presumably to prevent students  from  cutting  or  ripping them out.

                                                    

The son  of a journeyman shipwright  ,James  White   is variously described as  having been   born in  Liverpool, England,  and     Edinburgh ,Scotland. Apprenticed  to  a plasterer , it appears he studied  plaster  modelling  in  South Kensington  , London  , and  made  anatomical models  for  London  hospitals.

While he was  an assistant to the Scottish sculptor John Rhind, he executed a bas-relief of  the   surgeon  John Hunter  for  Edinburgh University . 

About 1884 White came to Sydney  and  with the support of  Sir Joseph Banks, the so called father of  the  Australia federation , became  the  busiest   sculptor  in  the   nation . 

He did works cast in plaster or bronze and carved in marble. Involved in the monument to Governor Arthur Phillip in Sydney's  Royal Botanic Gardens , he also produced the  statuette of a bushranger, large statues of  Queen Victoria and  Prince Albert .

 In 1902  his  group -In Defence of the Flag- resulted in him becoming  the first sculptor to be awarded the Wynne Prize. The enlarged cast-bronze version was sent to Perth as a war memorial the next year. 

His numerous commissions included one from Adelaide for a carved marble statue  in l904  of  the Scottish explorer  John McDouall Stuart who made  the  first  crossing of  Australia  from  the south  through the  Centre  to  the  north  and  return .

White produced a repousse copper figure-Commerce-for the Royal Exchange Building , Sydney . A founding member of the National Guild of Applied Arts and Crafts, he  had moved to  Melbourne by 1906.

(Sculptor. Aboriginal.Italian.)