Rayner Hoff

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Image:ANZAC War Memorial 10b - 28012002 x640.JPG Image:ANZACWarMemorial3 gobeirne.jpg Image:Holdenlogo.jpg Rayner Hoff (November 27, 1894 - November 19, 1937) was a sculptor who worked in Australia.

Born on the Isle of Man, Hoff was the son of a stone and wood carver. He began helping his father on architectural commissions at a very young age and briefly attended the Nottingham School of Art. During World War I he was in the British army and fought in France, an experience from which he was to draw most passionately in the creation of his various war memorials.

Returning from the trenches following the War he enrolled in the Royal College of Art in London. In 1922, Hoff won the Prix de Rome which allowed him the opportunity to study in Rome for the year.

He immigrated to Australia in 1923 where he became the Head Teacher for Sculpture and Modeling at East Sydney Technical College and set up his private studio. In 1933, he was named the head of the ESTC Art School.

He died at the relatively young age of 43..

His modeling is in a lyrical, classical art-deco manner which effortlessly combines sensuous curves with geometric line patterns.

Among his works is the emblem of the Holden Australian car company, a stylised 'Lion and Stone' symbol representing a legend of man's invention of the wheel.

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Architectural Sculpture

  • Medallions for various University of Sydney buildings, 1924
  • Royal Arch Masonic Temple, Sydney, Australia, 1927
  • The Spirit of Womanhood, National War Memorial, Adelaide, Australia, 1927-30
  • South Australian War Memorial, 1929?
  • figures and panels, ANZAC War Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia, 1931-34
  • Theatre Arts & Pan Liberty Theatre, Sydney, Australia, 1934
  • Ride of the Valkyries relief panel, Hotel Manly, Manly, Australia, 1935
  • Panels, Hotel Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 1935
  • relief panels, City Mutual Life Insurance build, Sydney, Australia, 1936
  • Mercury, Transportation House, Sydney, Australia, 1938
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Other works

  • panels, War memorial, Dubbo, New South Wales
  • Sacrifice, figure inside ANZAC Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney Australia, 1934
  • King George V Memorial, Canberra, Australia, 1937-53 – designed by Hoff and finished by John Moorefield following Hoff's death.
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Sources

  • Daele, Patrick and Roy Lumby, A Spirit of Progress: Art Deco Architecture in Australia, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1997
  • Edwards, Deborah, This Vital Flesh: The Sculpture of Rayner Hoff and His School, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1999
  • Hedger, Michael, Public Sculpture in Australia, Craftsman House, 1995
  • Inglis, K.S., Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, 1998
  • Sturgeon, Graeme, The Development of Australian Sculpture 1788 – 1975, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978
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