It’s not often that significant pieces of art go missing in New Zealand but William Trethewey’s sculpture has been missing for over 100 years.
William Thomas Trethewey was born on September 8, 1892 to Jabez Trethewey and his wife Mary. Jabez was a carpenter so William grew up surrounded by wood so it came as little surprise when he left school at 13 and became a wood carver of things like finials, fireplaces and bedheads. He studied at the Canterbury College School of Art and when he moved to Wellington studied life modelling. But his interest in anatomy was mostly self-taught studying his own muscles and the works of great sculptures like Rodin and Michelangelo. It was then he became a monumental mason. After the end of the First World War he saw new opportunities. He produced other works like a highly realistic statue of a New Zealand soldier, 'The Bomb-Thrower', which he showed in the Canterbury Society of Arts exhibition in 1919 as a model for local war memorials. The work excited great interest and was purchased by the society. He also carved the war memorial at Kaiapoi, the portrayal of a digger with the details of the kit so exact down to a broken bootlace. Shortly after the life-sized statue of Margaret Cruickshank, the doctor who died in the influenza epidemic was unveiled in Waimate. William had carved it out of a five tonne piece of marble. Commissions began to stream in, busts of benefactors and mayors, a sheep shearer for the New Zealand pavilion at the Wembley exhibition as well as detailed plaster work. In 1928 he won a competition to produce a sculpture of Captain James Cook from a 12 ton piece of Italian marble. The work was unveiled in Victoria Square in 1932. When the idea came up for a war memorial in Cathedral Square a local artist was suggested. An emblem of peace rather than a depiction of war was wanted. William’s design was six symbolic figures Youth, Justice, Peace, Valour and Sacrifice around an angel breaking the sword of war. It is considered one of the finest public memorials to this day. Among his other works was a sculpture of Maui Pomare in Waitara, lions in art deco style and a large figure of Kupe standing on the prow of his canoe. It stood for many years at the Wellington Railway station but was subject to vandalism and is now at Te Papa. None of his work brought much fame and fortune and after the Second World War there was little call for his art and he began making clocks. But his first work - the Bomb Thrower was lost and has never been recovered. William had married Ivy Louisa Harper on July 24, 1914 and they had four children. He died on May 4, 1956 and is buried at Bromley Cemetery.
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