Maquette for 'Simpson and his donkey 1915'

Place Middle East: Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Dardanelles, Gallipoli
Accession Number ART40983
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 41.5 x 25 x 36cm
Object type Sculpture
Physical description bronze
Maker Corlett, Peter
Victoria College Foundry
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne
Date made 1986
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Description

In 1987 sculptor Peter Corlett won a competition to design a memorial to commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a 3rd Field Ambulance stretcher-bearer who became the most prominent symbol of Australian courage and tenacity on Gallipoli. Corlett's winning design for the memorial, as shown by this maquette, is a reaffirmation of the essential ANZAC story, portraying a calm and resolved Simpson helping a wounded soldier, mounted on a donkey, on the dangerous journey to an aid post. 'Simpson and his donkey' was installed in the Memorial sculpture garden in 1988.