Fawn

Robert Nettleton Field was born in Kent in 1899. He went to the Royal College of Art in London, first studying decorative painting and then sculpture. Field was at the Royal College in the early 1920s - an exciting time at the school, when younger, more progressive tutors were pushing for a new, modern approach to teaching. 

Field emigrated to New Zealand in 1925 to take up a position at the Dunedin School of Art. He was brought to New Zealand under the La Trobe Scheme - a programme designed to improve the standard of art eduction in New Zealand colleges, by offering contracts to British and American teachers. Field taught both sculpture and painting. He had a big influence on his students, a group that included Toss Woollaston, Colin McCahon and Doris Lusk.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Field carved number of small sculptures of animals from Oamaru stone.  This 1950s work relates stylistically to those earlier sculptures, especially through the simplified form of the fawn. The sculpture is made from concrete, and is one of two versions of the work. The first fawn was made for Avondale College in Auckland, in 1955. It was a memorial to Stuart Weir - a student at the school who had died that year. The first Fawn was commissioned by Weir's parents. At the time, Field was head of the Art Department at Avondale College.