AUSTRALIAN SCULPTOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2872, 24 March 1909, Page 24

AUSTRALIAN SCULPTOR.

i LONDON, March' 17. At the banquet given in honour of Mr E. Bertram M'Kennal, the Australian sculptor, the guests included a number of Australian ex-Governors aaid artists. • Lord. Tennyson, who presided, referred to Mt M'Kennal as the pioneer of a noble • and individual Australian art that was yet to arise and be the glory of the Commonwealth, and reinvigorate British art. • Mr M'Kennal. replying, said that the . mystery of the Australian bush, its vast , silence? and distances, would some day inspire a great art effort. The Federal • capital would afford an opportunity io create a monument to Federation and of proving the present generation's full belief in the gi-ea'tness of the nation that was yet to come. Mr M'Kenna! was born in Melbourne mi 1865. He studied chiefly in Paris, and has resided for some years in England, where he has executed most of his memorable work. His special commissions include the war memorial at Islington, the great statue of Queen Victoria for the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, the monument to the late Robert Landale at Woking, and a bust of the late Sir Edward Knox, of Sydney. He is an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the New Gallery, and the Salon. He designed the figures of the allegorical group for the pediment of the new Governmnt buildings at Westminster.