George Rayner Hoff (27 November 1894 – 19 November 1937) was a British-born sculptor who mainly worked in Australia. He fought in World War I and is chiefly known for his war memorial work, particularly the sculptures on the Anzac War Memorial in Sydney.

Early life and training

Hoff was born in the parish of Braddan on the Isle of Man, the son of George Hoff, an English-born stone and wood carver of Dutch descent. The family later moved to Nottingham. Hoff began helping his father on architectural commissions at a very young age and attended the Nottingham School of Art. During World War I, he was in the British Army and fought in the trenches in France, an experience from which he was to draw most passionately in the creation of his various war memorials. Later in the war, he made maps based on aerial photographs.

Returning from the trenches following the War he enrolled in the Royal College of Art in London studying under Francis Derwent Wood for three years. In 1922, Hoff won the British Prix de Rome which allowed him the opportunity to study in Rome.

Australian work

His modelling 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.

Architectural sculpture

The Anzac War Memorial, completed in 1934, is the main commemorative military monument in Sydney, designed by C. Bruce Dellit, has an exterior adorned with monumental figural reliefs and sculptures by Rayner Hoff, and is arguably the finest Art Deco structure in Australia.

• Medallions for various University of Sydney buildings, 1924

• Egyptian Room, Royal Arch Masonic Temple at 23-35 New Canterbury Road, Petersham 1927.

• The Spirit of Womanhood, National War Memorial, Adelaide, South Australia, 1927–30

• 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 building, Sydney, Australia, 1936

• Mercury, Transportation House, Sydney, Australia, 1938

Other works

• War memorial panels, Dubbo, New South Wales

• Australian Venus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1927

• Sacrifice, figure inside Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney, 1934

• Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal for outstanding research by an Australian mathematician or physicist, first awarded in 1935.

• Bust of William Farrer in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, 1937

• King George V Memorial, Canberra, 1937-53 (designed by Hoff and finished by John Moorefield following Hoff's death)

• Bronze memorial plaque to John Irvine Hunter in Wesley College, University of Sydney

• Sir John Sulman Medal for the NSW Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 1934

Death

Hoff died on 19 November 1937, eight days before his 43rd birthday, and was survived by his wife and two daughters.

Further reading

• 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

• Hutchison, Noel S. , Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 322–323.

• 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

• Beck, Deborah, Rayner Hoff: The life of a sculptor, NewSouth Publishing, 2017

References