Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 28 July 1882, page 6


THE LATE MR. MARSHALL

WOOD.

The death of this eminent sculptor was an event quite unexpected, Mr. Marshall Wood having left Melbourne for England so recently as the early part of this year in his usual health. We believe that he had little more than reached his 50th year at the time of his death. Mr Wood's statue of the Queen, first exhibited at the Public Library, has found a permanent resting place at Parliament House. Replicas somewhat varied in detail, have, we believe, since been furnished to Sydney and Adelaide. The "Daphne " at the Public Library is the only ideal work of this sculptor in Victoria. A number of por-trait busts of Victorian celebrities, it is un-derstood, were in progress at the time of the artist's decease. The sculptor's fame will chiefly rest upon his poetic embodiment of Hood's pathetic "Song of the Shirt." In that work Mr. Wood scored a distinct success, and it remains a standard of the highest point reached in art by the sculptor. Mr. Wood has always been identified with the classical school, and it would almost appear as if he had, in " The Song of the Shirt," attempted the solution of the problem of pre-serving the higher qualities of ancient art in works that should appeal to modern sym-pathiea. It ia equally free from a cold effete classicism and the low aims of modern real-ism. There is no meretricious charm at-tempted anywhere, the pathos is deep and true. We criticised it in detail during its display at the late Melbonrne International Exhibition, 1880-1, and it was one of the only two statues which obtained a gold medal the other being the bronze statue of "Cain," by Dupre. Both remain in the colonies, the "Cain" having been purchased by the Government of Victoria, and the "Song of the Shirt" for the Sydney Art Gallery. Singular to say, both sculptors have since passed away.