In Site Library - Greater Dunedin: Peter Pan Sculptures (Botanic Garden) (1965 and 1968)
Peter Pan Sculptures (Botanic Garden)
Botanic Garden, Dunedin (OST Pubications sculpture trail #28a and #28b)
Cecil Thomas ..................Peter Pan photo Bill Nichol
InSite
Peter Pan ......... Dunedin Botanical Gardens................ Cecil Thomas
Since 1904 when J.M Barrie's play was first staged. Peter Pan has been a symbol for the enchantment of childhood. One who fell under the spell of "the boy who wouldn't grow up" was Harold Richmond, a Green Island businessman and philanthropist. When he was growing up in Oamaru he loved the statue in the Oamaru Public Gardens which depicts two children standing on a tree stump and looking down at the fairies, elves, birds, squirrels, and other small animals sculpted on the base. He remembered the magic of the imagery and the delight he had experienced as, like the children it depicted, he clambered over the statue and looked down at the enchanted world below.
It was this sense of wonder and also the physical pleasure of clambering over a statue that he wanted to pass on to future generations of children. He originally envisaged a smaller statue than the 2 metre high Peter Pan that is now sited in the Botanical gardens but when he was shown the site he decided that a larger work was best.
This was to be the first statue in the Botanical Gardens. The sculptor chosen for the work was a London based artist, Cecil Thomas. Thomas was a respected sculptor with some significant commissions to his name. His two metre high statue showing Peter with Tinkerbell at his shoulder standing on the sawn trunk of a tree is an original design although it obviously owes something to the most famous of all Peter Pan statues sculpted by Sir George Frampton which was commissioned by Barrie himself and is in London's Kensington Gardens. Cecil Thomas' Peter is, however more spirited, less obviously simply a boy. The Oamaru sculpture was designed by Thomas Clapperton, a pupil of Frampton's.
Present at the unveiling in 1965 was twelve year-old Christopher Johnstone who was the model for Peter. However, the show was stolen by a toddler, Hillary Muir, who demonstrated how well the statue was conceived by climbing all over it even as the dignitaries were speaking. Harold Richmond took the opportunity to speak fondly of the pleasures of patronage and urged others to follow his example rather than holding on to their money. In fact, he went further and commissioned a companion statue from Cecil Thomas of Wendy and her brother flying to Never‑Never land, with Nana, their dog, at their feet. It was unveiled in 1968. A Peter Pan by Cecil Thomas based on his Dunedin design was unveiled in Wanganui in 1967
Richard Dingwall
Text Copyright © Richard Dingwall
Insite
Learning to Fly........ Dunedin Botanical Gardens........ Cecil Thomas Sculptor.....
Green Island businessman Harold Richmond was delighted by the success of the Peter Pan sculpture in the Botanical Gardens. This he donated to the city in July 1966 and quickly commissioned a second piece on the same theme from the same sculptor, the Welsh born sculptor Cecil Thomas.
Cecil Thomas thought of the idea for the Wendy sculpture while he was making a bus trip round the South Island, probably at the time of the unveiling of the Peter Pan sculpture. The sculpture is eight feet high and weighs half a ton. It shows Wendy and her two brothers John and Michael, the three Darling children from the J.M Barrie's play, flying away, watched by their faithful Newfoundland dog, Nana.
Harold Richmond grew up in Oamaru and had fond memories of Sir Thomas Clapperton's Wonderland sculpture in the gardens where two children, a boy and a girl, look down from the top of a sawn-off tree trunk into a magical world below where fairies mingle with rabbits, owls and other woodland creatures. Some of that same sense of wonder is maintained in the Wendy sculpture where delicate fairies are seen around the trunk of the tree which the three children fly past. It was Harold Richmond's hope that this would be a statue which children could touch and scramble over, entering into some of the mystery and delight of Never-Never Land. The success of the Wendy sculpture can be judged by the golden glow of Nana the dog's nose where generations of children have clambered up, aspiring to fly with the three Darling children.
Harold Richmond was a shy man who preferred to stay out of the public eye. Over the years he made a number of bequests to the city, often for the betterment of the lives of children. He had originally wanted to make his Peter Pan donation anonymously but was present at the unveiling. On this sculpture he has been prevailed upon to accept some public recognition of his generosity. This takes the form of a medal held aloft by one of the circling fairies. Around his profile of him in low relief are the words "Harold Richmond Benefactor". It may be too that Cecil Thomas wanted to pay homage to the patron who had brought him major commissions late in his career. In 1967 he had unveiled another statue of Peter Pan, close in design to the Dunedin one, near Virginia Lake in Wanganui.
Richard Dingwall
Text Copyright Richard Dingwall