Figurative, bas reliefs & Lambert work

Bas relief 1924 cast plaster. Made when Murch was a student of Rayner Hoff at the National Art School

The Society of Artists’ travelling art scholarship entry 1925. Murch won the scholarship

After completing his Travelling Art Scholarship in Europe and the UK, Murch returned to Sydney, Australia and became an assistant to George Lambert between 1927 – 1930. During this time Lambert and his sculpture team worked on the Geelong Grammar School War Memorial, the Fallen Soldier and the Henry Lawson statue. Murch wrote about his experiences as assistant to Lambert: “In his Randwick Hospital studio Lambert was a Renaissance Master, a Verrocchio, a Leonardo. “I am the last of the masters” he told the 25-year-old Murch, “pick my brains while you can”. Lambert employed Arthur Murch for two days a week to scale up the figure of Henry Lawson from a 20-inch plasticine model to 8ft. The figure was central to the Henry Lawson memorial commissioned for the Domain. He also employed him to assist in the modelling of the recumbent figure of the Fallen Soldier, for St Mary’s cathedral, and placed Murch’s name with his on the base of the completed bronze. See the Harold Cazneaux photograph of Murch and Lambert working on the Fallen soldier sculpture held in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

The fallen soldier memorial 1931 bronze St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney. Murch worked on this sculpture with George Lambert who died in 1930

Geelong Grammar School War Memorial 1923-27 bronze by George Lambert. Murch was an assistant to George Lambert from 1927

Henry Lawson Memorial 1930 by George Lambert. Murch worked on the sculpture with Lambert

Murch working on the figure of Henry Lawson in the Randwick studio of George Lambert

Randwick studio of George Lambert 1927. L-R Edmund Harvey, Sten Snekkar, George Lambert, Arthur Murch. Sculpture of Henry Lawson Memorial in the background