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Overview
This bronze sculpture depicts a New Zealand 'bomb-thrower' soldier on the Western Front during the First World War. Such soldiers undertook single-handed attacks with grenades against enemy positions. It was made by Scottish-born New Zealand artist, Alexander R. Fraser, and displayed in the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Autumn Exhibition, 12 May to 4 June 1951. This particular sculpture was gifted by the New Zealand Academy of Fine Art to the National Gallery, the year following Fraser's death while serving on the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Council.
The exact production date is unknown, however recent research has revealed Fraser exhibited a bronze New Zealand 'bomb-thrower' throughout the 1920s and 1940s, in both England and New Zealand. A bronze 'bomber' featured in Royal Academy exhibitions in the early 1920s and the Dominions' Artists exhibition held in 1926 at the Spring Gardens Gallery, London. At this exhibition, Fraser was the only New Zealander in the sculpture section and was represented by two small bronzes and a plaster portrait bust. One bronze was 'The Bomber', 'a fine representation of a fully equipped soldier just on the point of throwing a Mills bomb.'
War Memorial Design
Fraser intended the design as a possible New Zealand war memorial, following Christchurch sculptor William Trethewey's 'The Bomb-thrower' in 1920. However neither design was adopted for public New Zealand memorials to the war.
Two major reasons account for this. The climate of the postwar years was characterised by peace and mourning. The aggressive and realistic image of the bomb-thrower did not suit the sombre, idealistic view of the New Zealand soldier and New Zealand's role in the First World War. New Zealand authorities were also prejudiced against local artists during this period. They failed to commission New Zealand sculptors and mistrusted homegrown talent - Fraser himself has been described as a tall poppy, his success as a student at the Royal College of Art counting little in his favour.
The Artist
Alexander Roderick Fraser (1877-1953) first trained as a sculptor and stonemason, and in 1901 arrived in New Zealand to teach sculpture and modelling at Wellington Technical College. Fraser taught from 1901 to 1910, and then returned to England. There, he studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. He was a New Zealand member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, and served as a draughtsman with the British Flying Corps 1916-18.
After the war, Fraser was commissioned to design and execute commemorative art for the First World War, especially remembering New Zealand's service in France; he completed the famous panel at Le Quesnoy and another piece in Amiens. He returned to New Zealand in 1937 and died in Wellington in 1953.