Harold Parker (1873-1962), sculptor, came to Brisbane with his English parents as a three-year old. While studying drawing, modelling and carving at Brisbane Central Technical College he won several prizes for carving; in 1893 he worked in Sydney, carving for a New South Wales forestry exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In 1896 he moved to London, where he was to remain, apart from two visits to Australia, for thirty-four years. There, he studied under WS Frith and worked as an assistant to several eminent sculptors; he exhibited at the Royal Academy; sculpted expatriates including Arthur Streeton; was painted by James Quinn; and became something of a rival to Bertram Mackennal. In 1908 his Ariadne was acquired for the Tate Gallery for a thousand pounds (in 1921, a half-sized replica of the work was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria). During the First World War he worked on two huge groups for the entrance to Australia House, for which Mackennal was sculpting Phoebus driving the horses of the sun (the Art Gallery of New South Wales notes that 'The conflict between Harold Parker and Mackennal over the allegorical or realist solution resulted in Parker's set of allegorically obtuse groups . . . which highlight not only how ill-equipped this artist proved to be in translating his vision into the arena of nationalist rhetoric but how adroitly Mackennal managed it.') The Pioneer, carved in Brisbane, was awarded a medal at the 1928 Paris Salon. Having returned to Queensland, where his sculptures attracted scant interest, Parker turned to painting. The National Gallery of Australia has many of his sketchbook drawings, but only one small bronze, Orpheus 1904.
