Dr Louis Smith 1914

Summary

Location: Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens Bronze bust of Dr Louis Smith on granite pedestal. Unveiled on 26 March 1914 by Sir Henry Weedon. The bust was situated in the gardens east of the Royal Exhibition Building between 1914 and 1996. The sculpture was removed from the site to protect it when work commenced on the new Melbourne Museum. It has since been returned to its original site. Born in London in 1830, Dr Louis Smith immigrated to Melbourne in 1852. Besides medicine, Smith had a career as a politician, during which he was accused and acquitted of corruption several times. An important figure during the development of the Exhibition Building, Smith was chair of the trustees from 1884 to 1909 and a trustee from 1881 until his death in 1910. Bertram Mackennal’s bronze bust of Smith was funded by public subscription and is sited at the eastern entrance to his beloved building. Born in London in 1830, Smith studied medicine in Paris and London before migrating to Melbourne in 1852 as a ship's surgeon. The next year he opened a surgery in Bourke Street, and soon became quite successful. Sir Edgar Bertram MacKennal- Born in Fitzroy in 1863, Mackennal studied at the Melbourne Model School, King's College, and the National Gallery. He travelled to London, Paris and Italy in 1882, before being appointed head of modelling and design at Coalport Potteries in Shropshire in 1886.|He briefly returned to Melbourne to make relief panels for Parliament House, but soon returned to Paris in 1891. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895 and soon found himself in demand. Some of his commissions include Queen Victoria (in England, India and Ballarat), the statues of Cardinal Moran and Archbishop Kelly at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, the medal for the London Olympics and several statues around Melbourne including Sir William Clarke and King Edward VII. He was Knighted in 1921, and elected to the Royal Academy in 1922.