Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), sculptor and poet, born 17 December 2020 at Hadleigh, Suffolk, England. In 1842 he gained admission as a student at the Royal Academy. In 1847 Woolner met D. G. Rossetti and became an original member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Woolner arrived Melbourne 23 October 1852. He was at the diggings in the Ovens Valley and in the Fryer’s Creek, Castlemaine and Sandhurst areas. Woolner found some gold but after six months sold his tools and returned to Melbourne. He began to model medallions but had to dig the local clay, grind his own gypsum and make his own tools. He then cast reliefs in bronze of well-known citizens, charging twenty-five guineas each, and their influence and the patronage of Lieutenant-Governor Charles LaTrobe brought him commissions.

Angus Trumble was recently appointed Director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Before this he was the senior curator at the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut for eleven years.He is the author of A Brief History of the Smile (2003) and The Finger: A Handbook (2010). His latest book co-edited with Professor Andrea Wolk Rager (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio), is Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.  He is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, The Burlington Magazine, The Paris Review, Esopus Magazine and The Australian Book Review.

Date:5:30-6:30pm,Thursday, 25 September 2020

Venue: Wright Lecture Theatre in the Medical Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville

Free Public Lecture. All Welcome. Bookings via the University of Melbourne website.

The Joseph Burke Lecture in Art History was established in honour of the first Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne, Professor Sir Joseph Burke.