Paul Raphael Montford

Born 1 November 1868
Died 15 January 1938

Active: 1892 - 1938

Country of birth: United Kingdom

Country of death: Australia

Sculptor, teacher

Born in Kentish Town, London. Died in Melbourne, Australia. He married Marion Alice Dibden, a portrait and miniature painter. One of Paul's sisters, Edwina Montford, married Philip Charles Bursill who was the nephew of the sculptor, Henry Wayte Bursill (c.1833-71). Paul Montford studied in his father's studio and then at Lambeth School of Art (1884-5). In 1887 he entered the Royal Academy Schools where he was awarded a number of medals and a travelling scholarship. From 1898-1903 he was modelling master at Chelsea School of Art. Between 1893-1919 Paul received a number of commissions, including sculpture for Battersea Polytechnic, Battersea Town Hall, and the bridge at Kelvingrove, Glasgow.

From 1919 he struggled to obtain new commissions and so moved to Australia in January 1923. The same year he was appointed modelling master at Gordon Technical Institute, Geelong. He was also proposed as the director of a sculpture school at the National Gallery of Victoria but the project did not materialize. Paul was active in various societies including being President of the Victorian Artists' Society in 1930-31. He struggled to obtain commissions in Australia and died of leukemia as a result of a large dose of radium administered for tonsilitis.

Citing this record

'Paul Raphael Montford', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1215096735, accessed 24 May 2022]