James White

Who was James White?

James White was an Australian sculptor, winner of the Wynne Prize in 1902.

White was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, the son of Robert White, journeyman shipwright, and his wife Janet, née Dunn. White was apprenticed to a plasterer and studied modelling at South Kensington. White made anatomical models for hospitals in London.

White came to Sydney around 1884 and worked for Achille Simonetti on the monument to Governor Arthur Phillip in Sydney Botanical Gardens. White won the Wynne Prize for the group 'In Defence of the Flag' at Sydney in 1902 White executed a large number of statues and memorials in Australia, including the Queen Victoria memorial and the Fitzgibbon statue at Melbourne, statues of George Bass, Daniel Henry Deniehy, Sir John Robertson and William Bede Dalley at Sydney, the John McDouall Stuart statue at Adelaide, South African war memorials at Perth and Ballarat and statues of Queen Victoria and George Lansell at Bendigo. In spite of this long list White was by no means a distinguished sculptor. White came to Australia when there were few sculptors there of ability, and it must be presumed that his sketch models were better than his finished works, as in later years he more than once obtained important commissions in competition with better men. White's head of an Australian aboriginal is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.