John Stuart Dowie AM (15 January 1915 – 19 March 2008) was an Australian painter, sculptor and teacher. His work includes over 50 public sculpture commissions, including the "Three Rivers" fountain in Victoria Square, "Alice" in

Rymill Park Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka (previously spelt Mullawirraburka), and numbered as Park 14, is a recreation park located in the East Park Lands of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. There is an artificial lake with rowboats for hire, a ...

, the " Victor Richardson Gates" at

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby ...

and the "Sir Ross & Sir Keith Smith Memorial" at

Adelaide Airport Adelaide Airport , also known as Adelaide International Airport, is the principal airport of Adelaide, South Australia and the List of the busiest airports in Australia, fifth-busiest airport in Australia, servicing 8.5 million passenger ...

History

Dowie was born in the

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

suburb of Prospect, a son of Charles Stuart Dowie (c. 1874–1937) and his wife Gertrude Phillis Dowie, née Davey (1881–1956), who married in 1910. His siblings were David Lincoln Dowie (1911–1991), Jean Phillis Dowie (1913–2010), and Donald Alexander "Don" Dowie (1917–2016). The family moved to the leafy suburb of

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of ...

in 1917. He attended Rose Park primary school and

Adelaide High School Adelaide High School is a coeducational state high school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Parklands. Following the Advanced School for Girls, it was the second government high school in South Australi ...

before studying

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

and painting at the South Australian School of Art; teachers included

Ivor Hele Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele, CBE (13 June 1912 – 1 December 1993) was an Australian artist noted for portraiture. He was Australia's longest serving war artist and completed more commissioned works than any other in the history of Austra ...

and Marie Tuck.John Stuart Dowie
,

Carrick Hill Carrick Hill is a publicly accessible historic property at the foot of the Adelaide Hills, in the suburb of Springfield, in South Australia. It was the Adelaide home of Sir Edward "Bill" Hayward and his wife Ursula (née Barr-Smith), and con ...

(

Government of South Australia The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

). He enlisted with the

2nd AIF The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the name given to the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initial ...

in 1940, serving in the 2/43rd Battalion and fought in the siege of Tobruk — the "

Rats of Tobruk The Rats of Tobruk were soldiers of the Australian-led Allied garrison that held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps, during the Siege of Tobruk in World War II. The siege started on 11 April 1941 and was relieved on 10 December. ...

". He next worked in the Military History Unit of the Second AIF as an assistant to Australia's first official war sculptor, Lyndon Dadswell. In 1943 he returned to his old Battalion, serving at

Finschhafen Finschhafen is a town east of Lae on the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The town is commonly misspelt as Finschafen or Finschaven. During World War II, the town was also referred to as Fitch Haven in the logs of some U.S ...

, New Guinea. After studying art in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Dowie returned to Australia and became a member of the

Royal South Australian Society of Arts The South Australian Society of Arts was a society for artists in South Australia, later with a royal warrant renamed The Royal South Australian Society of Arts in 1935. History A meeting of persons interested in the formation of a society for the ...

and

Dorrit Black Dorothea Foster Black (23 December 1891 – 13 September 1951) was an Australian painter and printmaker of the modernism, Modernist school, known for being a pioneer of Modernism in Australia. In 1951, at the age of sixty, Black was killed in a ...

's "Group 9", which included Geoffrey Shedley and Mary Shedley, Lisette Kohlhagen, Mary Harris, Ernst Milston, Marjorie Gwynne, and Ruby Henty.. One of his earliest commissions was from Adelaide architect D. P. Michelmore for the Ross and Keith Smith memorial, first installed outside the Vickers-Vimy hangar at the domestic terminal, West Beach Airport (since renamed Adelaide Airport). A massive undertaking, it consists of four oversize standing figures in high relief, carved in Gosford sandstone, overall size , and was unveiled on 27 April 1958. It now stands outside the Vickers-Vimy Memorial at the east end of the new Terminal. Since that time he made many dozens of statues, mostly in bronze, of prominent figures, none more so perhaps than the bust of

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

, who sat for him on five occasions in 1987 in the Yellow Drawing-room at Buckingham Palace. Dowie modelled directly in clay, from which he made plaster moulds (at the Palace) which were sent to the Meridian Sculpture Foundry,

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

, Melbourne, to be cast in bronze, by the lost-wax process, in time for the official opening of New Parliament House in March 1988.

Recognition

Dowie was made a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 1981 in recognition of his service to the arts as a sculptor and painter. He was nominated for Senior Australian of the Year in 2005,

Personal

After the death of his mother Dowie purchased the family home at 28 Gurney Road, Dulwich. Dowie never married. The painter

Penny Dowie A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...

(1948–) is a niece. Dowie died on 19 March 2008, aged 93, in an Adelaide nursing home, after having suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

the week before,Sculptor John Dowie dies

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

, 19 March 2008. and was buried in a country churchyard near

Littlehampton, South Australia Littlehampton is a village in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, located on the Old Princes Highway. It is approximately 35 minutes from the Adelaide CBD via the South Eastern Freeway. At the time of the 2016 Australian census, Littlehampt ...

Bibliography

''John Dowie: A Life in the Round'', autobiography ed. Tracey Lock-Weir, Wakefield Press Adelaide

Gallery

File:Ross and Keith Smith memorial (Dowie).jpg, Ross and Keith Smith memorial File:Father and Son (Dowie) (2).jpg, ''Father and Son'', tribute to Sir John Downer File:J150W-statue-Oliphant.jpg,

Mark Oliphant Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapon ...

File:OliphantHead.jpg, Oliphant File:J150W-statue-Florey-1.jpg,

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in ...

File:OIC adelaide gh lord florey statue.jpg, Florey File:John Dowie bust of Louis Laybourne Smith.jpg,

Louis Laybourne Smith Louis Edouard Laybourne Smith CMG (1 April 1880 – 13 September 1965) was an architect and educator in South Australia. Born in the Adelaide inner-southern suburb of Unley, he became interested in engineering and architecture while in th ...

File:J150W-statue-Napier.jpg,

Mellis Napier Sir Thomas John Mellis Napier (24 October 1882 – 22 March 1976) was an Australian judge and academic administrator. He was a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia between 28 February 1924 and 28 February 1967, Chief Justice of South ...

File:OIC adelaide gh mellis napier statue.jpg, Napier File:Kangaroo and Platypus Hemel Hempstead.jpg, Kangaroo and Platypus, The Water Gardens, Hemel Hempstead, UK File:Robert Richard Torrens bust.jpg, Robert Torrens File:Statue of Alice - Rymill Park - Adelaide.jpg, Alice (in Wonderland) File:Alice characters (Dowie).jpg, Characters at base of Alice statue File:Mawson (Dowie).jpg, Douglas Mawson File:Three Rivers.jpg, Three Rivers Fountain in

Victoria Square, Adelaide Victoria Square, also known as Tarntanyangga (formerly Tarndanyangga) (), is the central square of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It is one of six squares designed by the founder of Adelaide, Colonel William L ...

File:Victoriasquarefountain.jpg, Three Rivers fountain File:Adelaide VictoriaSq Fountain Night2.JPG, Three Rivers fountain File:J150W-statue-Dowie.jpg, Dowie by John Woffinden, 2006 File:Dowie (Woffinden).jpg, Dowie by Woffinden File:J150W-statue-Dowie-text.jpg, Plaque for Woffinden head File:Heysen at 89 (Dowie).jpg, Hans Heysen aged 89 File:John_Dowie_grave_marker.JPG, Original grave marker File:John Dowie grave marker 2.jpg, Later headstone

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowie, John 1915 births 2008 deaths Members of the Order of Australia Artists from Adelaide Artists from South Australia 20th-century Australian sculptors 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Australian male painters Australian Army personnel of World War II People educated at Adelaide High School Military personnel from South Australia