Bust, John Thomas Smith 1883

Summary

In 1837 at the age of twenty-one, Smith left his hometown of Sydney and set out for Melbourne where he first found employment as assistant teacher for the Church of England Aboriginal Mission Station sited on the Yarra River. Within a few years he had married Ellen, the daughter of Irish Catholic publican Michael Pender, and had entered the family business by taking on management of the Adelphi Hotel in Flinders Lane, a pub criticised at the time for its rowdy clientele. This ill repute, however, evidently did not dent his ability to win a place as councillor for Bourke on the first City Council of 1842, Smith would stay a councillor for the rest of his life, including seven terms as mayor between 1851 and 1864. In 1845 he built the Queens Theatre Royal, Melbourne’s first brick theatre. In 1848 he instigated the campaign behind the Benevolent Asylum and in the mid-1850s supported the 8-hour movement. Smith cut a visible figure around town easily distinguishable by his white hat and white shirt frills (evident in this marble bust) and his predilection for smoking a cutty pipe. Smith died in Flemington in 1879. Orazio Andreoni Rome (early 1800s-189?) Based in Rome, Orazio Andreoni’s workshop specialised in creating marble busts and figures of historical and biblical subjects. Andreoni exhibited these widely, including exhibitions in Glasgow in 1888 and Berlin in 1892. There is also speculation that he was active in America, based on a file held by the Smithsonian Institution Library. It is not clear how he came to create the bust of Smith however The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 18 December 1883 that ‘a marble bust of the late Mr John Thomas Smith, J.P. executed by a Roman sculptor, has been received by his widow for presentation to the Melbourne corporation’. One of Andreoni’s specialties as a sculptor was his expert ability at carving folds of material and diaphanous veils, something evident here in the marvellous handling of the puffy ruffles and decorative frills of Smith’s clothing.