Pietro Porcelli

Porcelli working on a statue of C. Y. O'Connor, 1910 or 1911. A bronze statue of Porcelli by Perth artist Greg James was unveiled in Kings Square, Fremantle, in 1993.

Pietro Giacomo Porcelli (30 January 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Italian-born sculptor responsible for many statues in Western Australia, including the Explorers' Monument, and those of C. Y. O'Connor and Alexander Forrest.

Biography Born in Bisceglie in the province of Bari, he moved to Sydney with his fisherman father at the age of 8. After initial training at the New South Wales Academy of Art, he furthered his study of sculpture and drawing in Naples, before returning to Fremantle with his father in 1898. Later that year, he completed his first commission – a bust of Sir John Forrest that now stands in the main entrance hall of Parliament House in Perth. His 1902 statue of Alexander Forrest was the first such statue of a prominent public figure to be completed in Perth. In 1915 he also created the 3.7 metre bronze statue of Eirene and attendants which stood atop the seven-storey AMP Chambers at the corner of St George's Terrace and William Street, which was removed when the building was demolished in 1972 and now stands on a man-made lake in the suburb of Floreat Waters.

Porcelli also completed war memorials in Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Victoria Park, West Leederville and Moora, and numerous headstones in Karrakatta and Fremantle Cemeteries, including that of Sir John Forrest in 1918.

After a period of work in Melbourne in the 1920s, he returned to Perth in 1939, where he died in 1943. He is buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.

Major works Subject Work Location Year Sir John Forrest bust Parliament House (Forrest Foyer) 1898 Alexander Forrest statue Stirling Gardens, Perth 1902 C. Y. O'Connor bust Mundaring Weir 1907 Sir James Lee-Steere bust Parliament House (Lee Steere Foyer) 1909 C. Y. O'Connor statue Fremantle Harbour 1911 Explorers' Monument monument Fremantle 1913 Australian Mutual Provident Society bronze emblem Perth (now moved to Floreat Waters) 1925 Frederick Henry Piesse statue Katanning 1916 Head of Christ alto-relief marble exterior of St Patrick's Church, Fremantle Peace bronze Midland Railway Workshops 12-panel frieze freestone Sanctuary, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne