Lot 785

Description

General Sir John Monash, Leader of the Australian Imperial Forces 1914-18, in bronze (119mm) by Kormis, uniface, bust of Sir John in military uniform, cast in high relief (approx 16mm at highest), signed Kormis, the artist's usual method of signing his work. Extremely fine and rare.

An impressive medal commemorating the iconic Australian, General Sir John Monash GCMG, KCB, VD (27 June 1865 - 8 October 1931), by noted artist, Fritz (Fred) Kormis. Fritz Kormis was born at Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany in 1894 and trained at Frankfurt Art School. His training was cut short by the outbreak of the Great War, in which Kormis participated, ending up as a prisoner of war, and spending four years in Siberia. He returned to his native town after the war and started working as a professional sculptor. In 1933, foreseeing the events to come, he left Nazi Germany to go to Holland, then England where he lived until his death in 1986. He specialised in portrait bronzes of influential Jewish identities, Kormis himself being Jewish, and many of these are now in the British Museum. In 1970 Kormis was commissioned to produce the great 'Prisoner of War Memorial' in Gladstone Park.