A FAMOUS SCULPTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 173, 22 July 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

A FAMOUS SCULPTOR.

If sculpture has for many years been cold-shouldered by the British public, there are signs of a coming revival of interest in the plastic art—if, indeed, iti has not alrea-dy come—and therefore it is an appropriate moment to present to my readers a fine sculptor in the person of Mr Lucchesi, says "M.A.P.," referring to the sculptor of "Peace," one Of the Boyd statues in Albert Park, Auckland.

A short, dark, powerfully-built man, in the prime of life, enveloped in a blue blouse, well-besmeared with clay, some of which, although he didn't know it, had become attached to the tip of his noee, with a big, broad-browed head beneath a shock of rebellious, dark, curling hair, dark brown moustachios, and very fine brown or hazel eyes—'twould be hard to say which—that is a little impression of Mr Andrea Carlo Lucchesi, as I found him hard at work on one. of his favourite female statues.

As his name implies, Mr Lucchesi has Italian blood in his veins, inherited from his father, a well-known sculptor's moulder in his day, but his mother was English, and he was born well within the' sound of Bow Bells, received an English education, and to all intents and purposes is an Englishman, if he lacks the Englishmen's morgue.

Since twelve years of age he has earned his own living, beginning first as his father's assistant, and then, determined to win the means necessary for the prosecution of his studies, turning his deft hand to anything and everything, moulding, pointing, carving, modelling, colouring plaster - casts so as to resemble bronze, silver, etc., by a special process invented by himself, "picking out" carriages, decorating furniture, designing window-tickets, and once even posing for a famous R.A. There was scarcely a famous studio in which he did not work in some capacity.. It is no wonder, then, that in all-round knowledge of ■his art Mr Lucchesi is second to none.

Ability, backed by such pluck and energy, was bound to bring its possessor to the front, and Mr Lucchesi was only twenty-one when the first of his long succession of beautiful works was exhibited in the R.A. Then, staking his all, he abandoned moulding, and entered the R.A. Schools, constantly exhibiting during his five years there side-by-side with his teachers, and carrying off three first prizes, and a second, and also the Landseer Scholarship. The 'beautiful "Destiny" brought him a gold medal from Paris in 1900, and he received a similar honour from Dresden some six years ago, while among his Academy successes one may mention "The Flight of Fancy," "The Myrtle's Altar," and "Oblivion," whilst he designed and executed the silver cup presented to Lord Roberts by Irish undergraduates, and was also responsible for the medallion of Buskin in the monolith erected to the great art - critic at Friar's Cray, Derwentwater, Ruskin's favourite spot.

To this year's Academy the sculptor contributes an ideal nude female figure 'entitled "Carthage," representing a Carthaginian woLian at the time when Carthage was battling desperately for existence, and the women' sacrificed their crowning .glory, to .m&kfe; cords for the catapults. . . , — s