Rayner Hoff
(United Kingdom, Australia 1894–1937)
Idyll: love and life
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
A relatively short Australian tenure - from 1923 to his death following a surfing accident in 1937 - did not prevent Rayner Hoff transforming the face of Australian sculpture. No active practitioner of the period is more associated with art deco, for example, or with the redirection of monumental statuary in Sydney towards an expressively inflected classicism. Hoff's sculpture is robustly erotic, but never prurient, embodying a paganism which is different in quality and kind from the coarser work of Norman Lindsay. Idyll: love and life might be described as chaste, despite the languor of its poses. Hoff taught drawing and sculpture at East Sydney Technical College, whose students revered and imitated him. Although met at the time with public outrage, Sydney's official Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park remains his enduring testament.
Art Gallery Handbook 1999
- Year
- marble 1926
plaster 1923 - Media
- Sculpture
- Medium
- marble
- Dimensions
- 106.7 x 52.0 x 13.0cm
:
a - marble; 106.7 x 52 x 13cm
b - tabernacle; 135 x 68 x 23.5cm - Signature & date
- Signed l.r. corner, incised "G.RAYNER HOFF". Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Howard Hinton 1926
- Accession number
- 1323.a-b
